from key to quire

The Death of Beer?

2010-06-08T11:39:00.004-04:00

The Atlantic investigates the slow fall of "big beer" in The Death of Beer? Money quote:

Follow any dude in oversized glasses into a bar, and you'll see why PBR and Yuengling are doing alright—they've spent serious time and money positioning themselves as the hipster drink of choice. Yes, they're cheaper than Bud Light, but by the slightest of margins. Hardly enough to explain the difference in sales.

Effing Hipsters. The marketing is no surprise, PBR is now owned by a hipster who also owns such venerable culinary pop culture icons as Chef Boyardee and Bumble Bee Tuna.

The difference in sales refers to the big dogs of beer -- Bud, Coors, and the rest. Apparently while "big beer" sales have decreased, craft breweries are increasing in market share but this hasn't slowed the tide of decrease in beer drinking by Americans. Instead folks are drinking more wine and spirits. Is it that American tastes are becoming more bourgeois of the continued democratization of wine as viticulturist look beyond the verdant slopes of California and spirits with the recent renaissance in cocktaillery?

The Republican Obama Effect

2010-06-07T21:44:00.007-04:00

I read an interesting article today Whatever happened to the Black Republican Wave:

This was supposed to be ''the year of the black Republican.'' Google the phrase and you'll get more than 20,000 results, most of them ending with a question mark. Prompted largely by a May 10 New York Times article, ''Black Hopefuls Pick This Year in GOP Races,'' media outlets pounced on the Great African-American Republican Narrative of 2010. Chock-full of Tea Parties and history (''the most black GOP candidates since Reconstruction''), the story was not only eminently discussable, it was also a perfect platform on which to stack another favorite talking point: the Obama effect. Despite very different political views, black Republicans were inspired by Barack Obama's victory and were now throwing their own black hats into the ring.

Conservatives, especially, welcomed the news, heralding more than 30 black Republicans running for Congress as proof that the right isn't racist. ''[This] shows that conservatives have no barriers to entry except on policy and philosophy,'' wrote Ed Morrissey on Hot Air.

But then came the primaries. In Alabama, Les Phillip, who made waves with ads saying President Obama ''played with terrorists,'' got crushed by both his white opponents. Even white incumbent Parker Griffith, a former Democrat who switched parties last year, beat Phillip by 17 points. Baptist minister Jerry Grimes lost in North Carolina's 1st district, and Lou Huddleston, who won a Cumberland County North Carolina Republican Party straw poll in February, got walloped in the 8th district. Despite his years of service as an aide to Colin Powell, Huddleston proved no match for Tim D'Annunzio, a businessman who raised money with ''machine gun socials.'' (For $25, supporters got a plate of barbecue and the opportunity to shoot an Uzi.) In Mississippi, Fox News analyst Angela McGlowan, endorsed by none other than the Sarah Palin, lost to both her competitors, catching only 15 percent of the vote.

There are still dozens more primary elections to come, but, so far, it seems voters in the South are less excited than the news media about 2010's crop of black conservative candidates.

In South Carolina - of all places - there is a Republican candidate for the first that is African American, Tim Scott. So far, he hasn't faced the race baiting his fellow candidate Nikki Haley has. The polling, while sparce has him ahead. But will the polling pan out? Despite high flying endorsements from groups like the club for growth and the scandal ridden head of the minuteman, Jim Gilchrist, can Scott pull ahead of the scions of two of South Carolina's leading political families - the Campbells and the Thurmonds? Even without such well knowns, the race is crowded (9 total are running). For Scott then perhaps it's just a matter of surviving to the eventual run off. And more importantly can he over come what has thus far proven to be a Bradley Effect on the right? We'll find out tomorrow.

***

As a side note, it's interesting to see the final campaign finance reporting as it shows Tim Scott for congress having paid $5450 to The Mace Group LLC for website and "messaging." The Mace Group also operates and maintains Will Folks outfit -- FITSNews who has been very supportive of Scott's Campaign and published many reports on Scott. But just to show you how incestuous and byzantine SC politics are -- Scott also hired Starboard Communications owned by Walter Whetsell, a direct competitor of the proprietor of FITSNews.

Sundays were meant for drinking

2010-06-06T18:11:00.003-04:00

...and who better to drink with than theater and movie master, culture critic extraordinaire Orson Welles:

So go ahead and pass the Paul Masson or, if you're in our neck of the woods -- Andre. Thanks to my friend Tug of About-Today for sharing the link to NYMag with this gem of a video.

Cilantro Vodka

2010-06-06T17:47:00.003-04:00

Summer time is upon us in Columbia which means it's time to sit on the porch sipping some Dee-lish cocktails. This year my friend Scott of Corley Mill Catering turned me on to the idea of infusing vodka to expand on cocktail capabilities.

An herb that really pleases the pallet of my friends and finds regular and versatile use in our kitchen, and we grow it in our garden, is cilantro. So what better way to experiment with vodka infusion than with something we have readily available and know we like in various combinations?

Just to add a twist and some extra versatility to the concoction we zested a lemon and put just a few pieces in the mason jar with the vodka. I didn't add too much because Lemon Zest is potent and could easily over power the flavor of the cilantro.

This concoction, assuming we can demonstrate a modicum of self control, will steep for at least a week. I look forward to sipping on a nice V&S -- or adding it to a Bloody Mary for a nice kick. Even better could be a delightful martini. If this works -- later this summer I might try making a cocktail variation of Tom Kha Gai

Jake Knotts, Nikki Haley and the peril of SC Politics

2010-06-03T20:56:00.007-04:00

Ben Smith earlier today noted an article by CBN's David Brody regarding the religion of Republican Gubernatorial front runner Nikki Haley. Those questions and the underlying implications were magnified this evening by what I witnessed at this evenings broadcast of Pub Politics.

[For the record Pub Politics had "technical issues".... with their sound/p.a. equipment, at the bar. so that will probably translate into their not posting the what was web streamed.]

If you don't know, it was tweeted, retweeted and subsequently is already on CNN. I was there, he then reiterated directly to me, and Corey Hutchins of the Free Times among other folks. Sen. Jake Knotts said (paraphrasing) we've already got a rag head in the white house we don't need one in the Governor's mansion. Because in my mind rag head is an unpleasant, derogatory stereotype that - post 9/11 - was used in reference to Arabs and Muslims - I asked him to clarify, did he mean Sen. Sheheen, Vincent is of Lebanese Catholic heritage and is the democratic front runner or Nikki Haley - the Republican front runner who was born and reared a Sikh of Indian origin who is his natural antagonist.

Without reservation he said he was not referencing his colleague Mr. Sheheen, but was in fact talking about Nikki Haley. To paraphrase and not use Sen. Knotts colourful language he went on to say that her father owned the local Sikh temple and imply that she was possibly receiving funds from extra-national sources, and on and on and so forth. At this point most of my companions at the table were light headed with disbelief at what we were hearing but came to reality when we realized it was Jake Knotts, and when he himself reminded us that he didn't give a damn he tells the truth and what he believes, which is pure Jakie -- he does speak his mind.

I ordered another beer and watched as Corey cornered Jake furiously typing on the qwerty keypad on his phone, while Wes Donehue was trying - unsuccessfully - to dissuade the Senator from speaking with the local reporter. I imagine the Free Times will have something up soon with the treasure trove of quotes that Hutchins received from the free wheeling Senator.

What followed was a flurry of phone calls by operatives on both sides of the aisle and the reactions, and denouncements that the national media have already picked up. Ah South Carolina Politics -- what a swamp.

Synthetic Biology, Nanobots, oh my!

2010-05-25T19:09:00.005-04:00

The Economist has great coverage of the creation of artificial life. With the sensational headlines on the various news sites and aggregators I couldn't help but recall this scene from Jurassic Park:

(Dr. Ian Malcolm) God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...

(Dr. Ellie Sattler) Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...

This news on the heel of the rise of the nanobots, what amazing times we live in!

Nikki Haley and Will Folks' affair, another example of sex crazy SC Politics

2010-05-24T18:30:00.009-04:00

Talk about a shot, literally, heard around the world. It was barely any time after Will Folks issued a statement this morning acknowledging an "inappropriate physical relationship" with Republican legislator and gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley before it was picked up by many outlets, first local, and then regional and finally national with various ideological commentary along the way from both the left and especially the right.

Of course, Will Folks being Will Folks -- his outfit is keeping track of it.

So far the most even keeled analysis is from Michael Dougherty writing for The American Conservative:

South Carolina gubernatorial candidate, Nikki Haley probably had an affair with political blogger, gadfly, and operative Will Folks – who is a one man clearinghouse for Palmetto state rumors. Folksposted this morning that he once had an “inappropriate physical relationship” with the very attractive, and recently-favored Haley. Haley denies it.

I’m told that the affair occurred in 2008 when Folks was working with Haley on her Congressional re-election campaign. Haley was married at the time.

Folks is a former spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford who left after several personal fights and wild political scandals. (He was a useful source in my profile of Gov. Sanford last year.) His reputation since leaving the governor’s office has only increased. He has become South Carolina’s essential political blogger.

In fact, Folks is like the Anna Wintour of South Carolina politics, generally unknown to the larger public, but within the right circles, revered and feared. He is so plugged-in that most political stories in South Carolina appear on his blog before they make the daily papers. I believe he remains a confidential source of advice and comment for Governor Sanford.

At first, I thought that Folks may be pulling his largest stunt ever. Just knowing his character, I believed that he was parodying the style of “affair disclosures.” Also, there is the timing; the primary will be June 8. But I now believe, after speaking with a few South Carolina sources, that Folks had a lawyer go over these words and that he feels genuinely threatened.

After alleging that there is a conspiracy to take down Haley and himself through a by a thousand political cuts, Folks justifies the disclosure by saying, “I refuse to have someone hold the political equivalent of a switch-blade in front of my face and just sit there and watch as they cut me to pieces.” That sounds like Folks.

In judging the veracity of Folks’ admission, it should be noted that Columbia, South Carolina is one of the most treacherous, gossiping, and self-obsessed political capitals on earth. Everyone there talks, and whispers about an affair between Haley and Folks are nearly a year old at this point. Political consultants were wondering two years ago why Haley’s car was so often seen in front of Folks’ home.

Corey Hutchins, a whip-smart, and well-sourced reporter for the Columbia-based alt-weekly, Free Times, reports that Folks admitted to the affair almost a year ago. If true, this would put to rest the defense that these rumors are only coming out because the primary is in two weeks. The AP, the Free Press and other South Carolina sources have been working on this story for over a month, apparently badgering Folks.

Some have speculated that, despite his prior support and work for Haley, Folks is acting out against her social conservatism and her association with Jenny Sanford, whom Folks has battled with since the early days of Gov. Sanford’s first gubernatorial campaign.

That part is true. Folks isn’t exactly Palinesque on the social issues. He writes on his site: “On social issues, we are primarily libertarians but readily admit that Aaron Sorkin and Annie Savoy have corrupted our good girl, Calvinist upbringings.” But there are good reasons to believe his prior (and continuing) support of her candidacy isn’t fake.

Despite his differences with Jenny (and Mark) Sanford, if the Sanford’s are behind a candidate, Folks probably is too. He is a fiscally conservative, and libertarian leaning the type that is coming out to support Haley all cycle. He has worked with her before. And so it is hard not to take this morning’s admission as anything other than genuine.

If this turns out to be true, and I think it will, the affair will be a black mark not only on Haley’s promising campaign, but on Jenny Sanford who is about to launch a book-tour, and Sarah Palin who seems determined to go to the mat for Haley. Unless I’m mistaken it would also be one of the first great adultery scandals for a female politician in the United States.

Mr. Dougherty describes the nature of Columbia to a tee, and to really understand it you have to know how incredibly incestuous and internecine the political class is. When folks recognize and call this entire situation Byzantine, it's really an understatement. In South Carolina even an admission of "truth" by a person as deep in it as Folks has been met with further rumormongering and spin.

For example, by late afternoon a common trope in political circles, that was whispered at the onset this morning, is that Folks was paid off by one of his competitor consultants, Haley even said as much in an interview given this afternoon on WVOC - a right wing radio station in Columbia.

These allegations are just yet another in a string of embarrassments for South Carolina politicians.

It all started with the fall from grace of Governor Mark Sanford, from there it's spiraled out of control.

First we had the Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer proffering up a preemptive defense against the perennial rumors that he's gay, while not addressing the other rumors that he's generally just creepy when he's gawking over the bevy of extremely young women who keep him company in most non business public settings, although I suppose they go hand in hand.

Then there was the romantic imbroglio between Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and Republican candidate for State Superintendent of Education Kelly Payne.

This was followed up by essentially an oppo-dump by Wes Wolfe on Republican candidate for State Treasurer Curtis Loftis that included storming public court records and accusations of homosexuality and herpes.

Then there was Lindsey Graham being told to "come out" by Tea Party activists rallying against his moderate position on Immigration Reform.

And flying under the radar, being overshadowed by the current scandal, are the rumors that Will Folks posted concerning Republican gubernatorial candidate, and Haley opponent, Gresham Barrett and alleged improprieties he had with a staffer.

And we're not even past the primaries yet....

Revitalizing Main Street, Innovista, and the perils of development

2010-05-22T13:02:00.002-04:00

Former "The State" Editor Brad Warthen drew my attention to an article in the Columbia Regional Business Report where in an interview with Mike Fitts, Mayor Elect Steve Benjamin had a novel suggestion:

Columbia already has the right major tenant to go into the former SCANA Corp. space on Main Street, according to mayor-elect Steve Benjamin: He wants the building to be the new home of the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Benjamin hopes the school could work out a long-term lease with the Palmetto Center, the building that now has about 450,000 vacant square feet in the heart of downtown. A long-term tenant such as the law school should be appealing to the owners, Benjamin said, and would keep the building in private hands and on the tax rolls.
“I want the law school in that building. I really do,” Benjamin said.
If the school were there, it would be surrounded by the offices of many of the state’s biggest law firms and several courts, including the S.C. Supreme Court, Benjamin said.
“It’s a perfect place for law students,” he said.
Benjamin said he has met with the building’s owner and real estate agent to pitch the plan. The building could be bought by a new owner and renovated for substantially less than it would cost USC to build a new school, he said.
Moving it there “would mean giving Main Street a big old shot of adrenalin,” Benjamin said. He compares the potential impact on downtown to what the Savannah College of Art and Design has brought to that city.
Columbia has been supportive of USC, such as building new parking for the Innovista project, Benjamin said. This would be an opportunity for USC to boost the city’s downtown, he said.
USC officials have not responded to the idea, Benjamin said. Some have seen only the obstacles to the plan, he said, but business leaders have seen the possibilities and like them.

To which I say, what a great idea! This could be a great boost for the Main Street District. And it's not the first foray into down town for the university that will keep the property on the tax rolls. In April The State reported that Innovista partners will be moving into the Wilbur Smith Building down town.

Meanwhile Mike Fitts followed it up with a story a couple of days later about yet another issue facing the city and University, the continuing struggle with the innovista campus. This time an independent developer is upset with the slow movement of both the University and City on his plans for a new student tower. From SCBiz:

COLUMBIA -- The developer planning to build a set of student towers ranging up to 28 stories high near the University of South Carolina campus is looking at other locations, saying that USC and Columbia officials seem hesitant to agree to the $100 million project.

“It’s very frustrating,” said developer Robert Threatt of Charlotte. “We don’t seem to be able to get there.”

USC’s new Innovista executive, Don Herriott, said the university and the city, which jointly control the property, were performing due diligence in asking for details from Threatt that would assure them the major project would go forward.

The plans for the complex were first introduced as part of the agenda for April’s meeting of the city’s Design Development Review Commission, but they were pulled from consideration at that time. The plans sketch out a huge new development looming over Devine Street and filling the block directly across from the entrance to the Greek Village.

The towers could be almost as tall as the Capitol Center building at Assembly and Gervais streets. The top floors in the U-shaped complex would be several hundred apartments for students and others wanting to live in the Vista. The complex also would offer a swimming pool and other recreation areas, along with retail space.

According to Threatt, the city and USC have been asking him to provide so much documentation that it would take nine to 12 months to satisfy them. He already has been working on the project for 15 months, he said, and has designed it three different times to satisfy local concerns, including ensuring it would mesh with the Innovista master plan created by Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass.

That’s more design work than his firm ever has done for a parcel of land it did not yet own, Threatt said.

Now, Threatt said, “I’m looking at a lot of different options.” He did not specify whether those options include sites outside the Midlands.

USC and Columbia are just trying to be good custodians of public land before it is turned over to a private developer, Herriott said. The land belongs to the city, but USC holds a long-term lease to use it for parking.

The city, through Columbia Development Corp. executive director Fred Delk, and the university came together to ask Threatt to provide references and documentation of his financial backing for the project, Herriott said.

They also wanted a development agreement, Herriott said, to be sure that Threatt would build something close to what he had proposed.

Threatt said private money is all lined up for the project, sitting in a hedge fund. Some investors are leery about putting their names out in public, Threatt said, but some financial accommodation should be possible.

Threatt said he understands that Columbia and USC have had past frustrations with developers.

Just last week, USC settled with Kale K. Roscoe and R. Timothy Heath, the developers hired to construct a private building for the university’s research campus. The agreement calls for the university’s Research Campus Foundation to pay the developers $890,000 from the Development Foundation.

That said, Threatt believes Columbia should be more welcoming of a project that would add $1.2 million to the city’s annual tax rolls. The complex would be built to platinum-level standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, he said, and would be one of the most forward-thinking developments in the country.

“Most people would have met me at the airport with a limo,” he said.

That last line is almost LOL funny, the presumptuousness.

But anyway, a few years ago when the city and University were wrapped up in the smoke screen of 'if you build it they will come,' this idea probably would have flown. Heck it's not to say that other residential developments within the vicinity haven't been successful, but again only after a rethink in strategy. It was only last year that Aspyre was trying to market itself towards the 'new urban professional' and was tied to the success of Innovista, it's now purely a student housing facility. Several years after construction finished Addesso condos are finally filling up after many mark downs in price. According to their website they're over 60% sold!

I suppose one could say Threatt is going after the right market with students, but has USC expanded their acceptance of new and transfer students so much that even more apartments are needed? It seems like there's a glut of student housing around Columbia -- I'm speaking anecdotally here when one considers the number of rental properties that have popped up over the last decade from South Columbia around the Stadium to the places right across the river, not to mention the single unit homes around town.

The developer has cited augmenting his plans for Innovista, but has he lived in a cave the past several months? The University and City while still supporting Innovista have scaled back the project, and rightly so considering the economy. But beyond that, if the need is there for additional student housing, and it could very well be, why would you build a 28 story tower in an area where most buildings are only 3-4 stories tall, especially across from the Greek Village. While the amenities sound nice, from a design and aesthetics perspective the tower would look out of place and quickly become an eyesore.

Angels, Nanobots, and pin heads

2010-05-14T12:12:00.001-04:00

We may not be able to know the answer to the derisive question How man angels can dance on the head of a pin? But the Wall Street Journal has an article on the advancements in nano technology and bioengineering.

According to the WSJ, scientist have for the first time created nanobots

"...called DNA walkers—mobile DNA molecules, about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, that have three or more legs made of a string of genetic enzymes. Each leg moves forward based on its chemical attraction to sequences of biochemicals laid down, like stepping stones, in front of it.

These robots are so small that the researchers program their actions by encoding commands in the world around them. They follow chemical cues programmed into the ground on which they walk.

This moves nanotechnology one step further towards advancing the concept of miniaturization, already, according to the article one group of scientists have made such nanobots assemble particles of gold in eight different ways, and yet another has utilized the walkers in delivering actions on demand creating a kind of nano-factory.

Scientist caution though that full application and use of these DNA walkers in mass production could be a decade away.

Nanotechnology, is not a new field with current applications in electronics, cosmetics, apparel(think of those pants that are "spill resistant) and textiles, medical technologies amongst many other disciplines.

As exciting as the prospects for nanotechnology are, the applications - especially many of the nanobiotech applications do raise many ethical questions that are only now being gleaned.

Here in Columbia, the University of South Carolina's NanoCenter is a leading institution into the study and application of this ever growing field.

Jesus and Mo

2010-05-13T10:01:00.002-04:00

My partner sent me a link to the below archived image at a fun little site called jesusandmo.net

I thought it was funny and then with some clicking of my own discovered this little gem:

May 20th is the first international "Everybody Draw Mohammad" day. It, of course, was started in response to the response of South Park's satarizing the fact that in the current cultural climate it is forbidden to offend Muslims with images of their religious leaders when everyone else is fair game.

Already folks have noted that Islamic Iconoclasm, or the strict enforcement of, is only a modern notion. Believe it or not, in museums around the world their are paintings from around the islamic umma accross the centuries that variously depict the prophet. Even in modern states like Iran images of Mohammed being touted by children are not uncommon.

One could argue then it's a matter of tasteful or respectfulness that one not show an image of Mohammed with a bomb turban or as a dog, but it begs the question of muslims -- if you demand respect from us for your religion, how are you respecting people of other faiths, or no faith at all!... I'm thinking intimidation, forced conversions, familial estrangement and assasination plots when a muslim converts to another faith? Then there's the whole problem with religious extremism and terrorism - what is the average muslim on the streets of Cairo, Ramallah, or Damascus doing to combat the twisting of their faith by extremist preachers?

Transcendent of that though is an essential truth, there are elements of incompatability between modern western culture and the prevailing culture of the Umma. Central to this is that beyond matters of respect - the freedom to draw Mohammed as a dog or Jesus as a homosexual or any religious or secular figure in a light that is unbecoming and untoward, so long as it doesn't cause physical harm to the subject of the speech is an essential part of our notions of freedom of speech. You can be pissed, you can retaliate with vitriol or equanimity but it doesn't afford you the right to retaliate with violence within our western culture. This is true of anyone or any group, it's the beauty of the justice and equality of the freedom of speech.

conservative media, psuedo civil libertariansim and Kagan

2010-05-12T12:18:00.001-04:00

It's begun.... well of course it's begun, but the "Conservatives" and their media outlets are pushing a new, and baffling, meme. Supreme court nominee Elana "Kagan argued for gov't 'redistribution of speech'" - so is the headline on The Drudge Report this morning. The link is to a CNSNews.com analysis of an a paper Kagan wrote entitled: "Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine."

From the analysis we learn that:

Kagan said that examination of the motives of government is the proper approach for the Supreme Court when looking at whether a law violates the First Amendment. While not denying that other concerns, such as the impact of a law, can be taken into account, Kagan argued that governmental motive is "the most important" factor.

In doing so, Kagan constructed a complex framework that can be used by the Court to determine whether or not Congress has restricted First Amendment freedoms with improper intent.

She defined improper intent as prohibiting or restricting speech merely because Congress or a public majority dislikes either the message or the messenger, or because the message or messenger may be harmful to elected officials or their political priorities.

Sounds good so far, we should be able to criticise and say things about government (hello Tea Partiers!) And the analysis cites as an example campaign finance laws:

The first part of this framework involves restrictions that appear neutral, such as campaign finance laws, but in practice amount to an unconstitutional restriction. Kagan wrote that the effect of such legislation can be taken as evidence of improper motive because such motives often play a part in bringing the legislation into being.

"The answer to this question involves viewing the Buckley principle [that government cannot balance between competing speakers] as an evidentiary tool designed to aid in the search for improper motive," Kagan wrote. "The Buckley principle emerges not from the view that redistribution of speech opportunities is itself an illegitimate end, but from the view that governmental actions justified as redistributive devices often (though not always) stem partly from hostility or sympathy toward ideas or, even more commonly, from self-interest."

Such a belief would put her with the court's majority in the recent Citizens United case where Justice Kenedy wrote for the majority, "it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."

So the first amendment is alive and well, yay. So where's the problem? I suppose it must be in the second part of the analysis which concerns with Kagans view of government restricting language that may cause harm to the public.

While Kagan does not offer an exhaustive definition of 'harm,' she does offer examples of speech that may be regulated, such as incitement to violence, hate-speech, threatening or "fighting" words.

It's interesting. My gut tells me that the critics are narrowly focusing only on the "hate speech" aspect of Kagan's definition of harm. Socially conservative, and specifically religiously conservative folks would find reasons to "fear" (quotation marks are intentional to denote the irrationality and superciliousness of this fear) restrictions on speech if the debates regarding so called hate-speech tell us anything.

Perhaps though that expansive definition of harm in conjunction with what followed is what truly disturbs conservatives and makes them believe that Kagan is anything but a civil libertarian.

Kagan says that government is also prohibited from treating two identically harmful speakers differently. To do so, she argues, would be to violate what she views as the principle of equality -- making the unequal restriction unconstitutional.

"But the government may not treat differently two ideas causing identical harms on the ground that thereby conveying the view that one is less worthy, less valuable, less entitled to a hearing than the other," she wrote. "To take such action -- in effect, to violate a norm of ideological equality -- would be to load the restriction of speech with a meaning that transcends the restriction's material consequence."

Kagan argues rightly in terms of speech that harms - as defined above - that in penalty and force of law when speech is restricted, used and causes harm the penalty for one party should be equally as severe as the other - it doesn't matter if you're Osama Bin Ladin or the Rt Rev. Fred Phelps.

There is a proverb for this: your free speech ends where my safety begins.

The epistemic closure continues.

The Rise of Liberaltarianism

2010-05-11T21:25:00.003-04:00

David Cameron and Nick Clegg (L) during a VE day ceremony in central London Photo: REUTERS

One only has to look across the Atlantic and at the coalition government rising from the ashes of last weeks British election to realize that there's something afoot. While the conservatives under Cameron won a plurality of seats in Parliament it wasn't enough to govern outright. For the first time since 1974 elections resulted in a "hung parliament."

Recognizing the Tories plurality, but noting their own strength - the intervening time has seen the Liberal Democrats flex their muscles in hashing out a coalition with the Tories. Already the details of the coalition emerging are promising for centrists and perhaps even liberaltarianism.

The face of politics in Britain and the soul of British conservatism is evolving.

Anti-Gay Activist, University of South Carolina Prof, caught with "Rent Boy" in Miami

2010-05-04T17:13:00.004-04:00

The title of the posts sums it up. Renowned Anti-Gay Activist, and professor at the University of South Carolina Medical School, Dr. George Rekers was returning from a fabulous 10 day European tour when he was photographed with a rent boy, aka - escort, gigolo, male prostitute among many other nom de plume.

Sometimes reality is strange- er than fiction. So I'll just turn it over to the Miami New Times relevant sections:

The pictures on the Rentboy.com profile show a shirtless young man with delicate features, guileless eyes, and sun-kissed, hairless skin. The profile touts his "smooth, sweet, tight ..." and "perfectly built 8 in..... " and explains he is "sensual," "wild," and "up for anything" — as long you ask first. And as long as you pay.

On April 13, the "rent boy" (whom we'll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by an old man with an atavistic mustache and a desperate blond comb-over, pushing an overburdened baggage cart.

That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy's client and, as it happens, one of America's most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera.
Reached by New Times before a trip toBermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. "I had surgery," Rekers said, "and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." (Medical problems didn't stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)
Yet Rekers wouldn't deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com — which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks — and Lucien confirmed it.
At the small western Miami townhome he shares with a roommate, a nervous Lucien expressed surprise when we told him that Rekers denied knowing about his line of work from the beginning. "He should've been able to tell you that," he said, fidgeting and fixing his eyes on his knees. "But that's up to him."...
...In his interview with New Times, Lucien didn't want to impugn his client, but he made it clear they met through Rentboy.com, which is the only website on which he advertises his services. Neither Google nor any other search engine picks up individual Rentboy.comprofiles, any more than they pick up individual profiles on eHarmony or Match.com. You cannot just happen upon one.

Well of course the rentboy isn't going to admit to having sex, that would mean he's guilty of.... prostitution!!!

QOTD: Genius

2010-05-04T15:25:00.001-04:00

I like simple experiments, and champagne. - Steven Hawking

QOTD: Breetish political humor

2010-04-06T11:20:00.001-04:00

Don't want to cause any offence here, but if the Prime Minister is implying that "ordinary" means "the norm", then he's misleading us. Brown is Scottish. And he's Scottish in a very Scottish way, what with being "a son of the manse".

The average voter doesn't know what a manse is. How many of you have even laid eyes on one? I haven't, though I'm guessing it looks like a vicarage with a little black cloud hovering over it, raining Calvinist guilt down the chimney. - Damian Thompson

Liberaltarians found

2010-04-06T08:46:00.001-04:00

A new meme is circulating political blogs showing lots of fun looking graphs from OKCupid (aren't they the dating company, yes)

Will Wilkinson of Cato and Marketplace fame examines the graphs and makes some hypothetical conclusions. (emphasis is my own)

Let's look at the overlap of these two charts in the libertarian quadrant:

Let's call the pink triangle the "libertarian contested zone." If you're a Baby Boomer or older with views in the contested zone, you probably lean Republican. If you're Gen-X or younger and fall in the contested zone, you probably lean Democrat. 20 year-olds and 50 year-olds occupying the exact same point on the matrix may have relatively large differences in major party sympathies.

Because older libertarians in the contested zone lean Republican, they probably feel comfortable with elements of right-wing political culture that may have little or nothing to do with their opinions on issues which determined their place on the grid. They'll be fairly patriotic, find Founder worship relatively unproblematic, feel a bit antagonized by "political correctness" and relatively untroubled by casual "commonsense" race and gender stereotypes, and will generally feel sympathetic to conservative assumptions about American identity. They're a bit hawkish and worried about Islamism. They might make a show of enjoying guns, steaks, and cigars. They're inclined to get a kick out of Glenn Beck. Or so I conjecture.

Because younger libertarians in the contested zone lean Democratic, they probably feel comfortable with elements of left-wing political culture that may have little or nothing to do with their opinions on issues which determined their place on the grid. They'll probably be relatively cosmopolitan, inclined to celebrate diversity, and sensitive to ongoing discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and gays. They'll be relatively unimpressed with rhetorical appeals to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and the virtues of really real American red-state American identity. They're a bit dovish and worried about civil liberties under the Patriot Act. The might make a show of eating ethically, a penchant for indie rock, and a well-worn passport. They're inclined to think Glenn Beck is a maudlin fool. So I say.

So what does all this suggest?

One thing it suggests that the neo-Fusionist elements of the Tea Party movement are attractive primarily to older people. And I suspect that the more strongly certain libertarian ideas and tendencies are associated with the cultural politics of Baby Boomer conservative Republicans, the more strongly young people with libertarian inclinations will tend to identify with the Democratic Party and take on cultural assumptions and characteristics common to liberals. Here's my bottom line. Democratic-leaning libertarian young adults are the primary "liberaltarian" constituency. They are to my mind who liberaltarianism is intended for. Liberaltarianism or libertarian-liberal fusionism is not about some ridiculous practical political coalition between Larry Kudlow and Bill Galston. It is about building a coherent, appealing, practical ideological identity for all those libertarian-ish young folks who don't want a damn thing to do with the party of old, angry religious white people.

Amen.

I found this assessment explains my own political situation, and the background explains why my dad thinks I'm a raging liberal when I'm not.

(via the daily dish)

Election Day Open Thread, Columbia edition

2010-04-06T06:45:00.004-04:00

As the old saying goes vote early and vote often.

Polls open at 7am in Columbia, and close at 7pm. Check the State here for a map of polling places. We're voting for Mayor, one at-large member, and districts 1 & 4. The District 2 election is on hold for voting rights violation -- which considering the history of the voting rights act and the persons who are responsible for the violation is ironic.

What's your experience at the polls today. Who are you voting for? See any problems? It's an open thread.

Waldo whacks Boy Fogle... again

2010-04-05T18:14:00.006-04:00

My friend Waldo leads an almost Quixotic quest to show just how hypocritical, underhanded, and shady the world of political blogging in South Carolina is. Most are blogger-cum-consultants, being paid to spin daily what their masters feed them while offering the pretense of being "news" outlets, by posting fluff to drive traffic, as opposed to being opinion sites. Well, at least one acknowledges his site is more opinion than fact.

Any who, today Waldo offers us what can only be an exhaustive breakdown of the homophobia-for- hire which is Adam Fogle's Palmetto Scoop, a wholly owned subsidiary of former representative, now super consultant, Rick Quinn.

Full disclosure: Fogle "outed" me as anonymous blogger in 2008... because having prior been featured on The State Newspaper online as blog of the week and having linked to the blog on my facebook page says I strive for anonymity. (that's about as sarcastic as I get folks)

The Hipsters got a promotion

2010-04-03T04:48:00.003-04:00

The hipsters of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY have gotten a promotion. Librarians aren't out of vogue, but perhaps just a career stepping stone. Per the NY Times:

Visitors to the show are relatively young, somewhere in their 30s on average, which makes them a decade younger than usual for MoMA, recent surveys showed. And a surprising one-third of this audience had never stepped foot in the museum before.
“We’d never done anything like this,” said Rajendra Roy, the museum’s chief curator of film, who was one of the show’s organizers. “There’s always a learning curve. Would I have done things differently? I don’t think so.”
For a 37-year-old curator, Mr. Roy seems pretty cool about it all, considering that only a few years ago he started his professional life selling tickets at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Yet as museum directors have come to realize, younger minds attract younger audiences. And Mr. Roy is just one of a growing group of rising curatorial stars cutting quite a different figure from the age-old image of museum curator as a fusty academic.

That's right, hipsters have now taken over art and history museums (go figure). Now that's interesting.

Indra Nooyi and PepsiCo charging forward

2010-03-31T17:12:00.003-04:00

The Economist has an interesting article on Indra Nooyi and the shifting direction of PepsiCo, a leading manufacturer of snack foods. On March 22 Ms. Nooyi announced that Pepsi was establishing targets of healthiness amongst it's myriad of snack products.

By 2015 the firm aims to reduce the salt in some of its biggest brands by 25%; by 2020, it hopes to reduce the amount of added sugar in its drinks by 25% and the amount of saturated fat in certain snacks by 15%. Pepsi also recently announced that it would be removing all its sugary drinks from schools around the world by 2012.

One could argue that this is in response to First Lady Michelle Obama's speech to the Grocery Manufactures Association, but as The Economist notes:

Under Ms Nooyi, who became boss in 2006, it has stepped up its diversification into products it calls “better for you” and “good for you”, including fruit juices, nuts and porridge (oatmeal, to Americans). Ms Nooyi does not see this as a case of trading profits for virtue. Instead, she insists both are possible—an idea expressed in the firm’s syrupy motto: “Performance with purpose.”

Ms. Nooyi isn't the first woman to strong arm corporate culture at Pepsi Co to change the direction of the company... I'm looking at you Joan Crawford (warning below video is NSFW)

Foodstamps and foodies

2010-03-31T16:58:00.003-04:00

A friend on facebook just updated their status to say:

justg [sic] watched my tax dollars pay for a month's food stamps worth of overpriced, organic junk food at EarthFare, ugh... the system is broken!

It's funny because only a couple of days ago did I find a blog discussion on that very notion... folks using food stamps to purchase foodie foods. From The Daily Dish:

Jennifer Bleyer mocks young people using food stamps to purchase foodie products. Elizabeth Nolan Brown shrugs:

People are always railing, of course, about how people on food stamps don’t buy enough healthy food. But heaven forbid the food they buy is too healthy, or healthy and also outside the mainstream. It’s absurd. Fresh produce is a luxury? Soy protein (which costs about the same as meat) the height of libertine-ism? Not to mention that things such as Chinese gourd and coconut milk are the very kind of corner-store staples in ethnic neighborhoods that often sell these sorts of foods cheaper than mainstream varieties...

Dreher comes around:

I confess I did flinch at the idea of these people spending their taxpayer-provided food dollars at Whole Paycheck. And that made me realize that I have this unrecognized prejudice that the poor -- meaning those who qualify for food stamps -- must be condemned to eat cheap, bad food as the price of receiving state charity. That's not right, is it? I mean, why wouldn't I care if Joe Bob bought a box of Velveeta with his food stamps, but spending that money on a wedge of triple creme Brie rankles?

For me it's a no-brainer, while price doesn't exactly equate with healthfulness of foods, it can be an indicator as does location, in the case of my friend Earthfare. In the long run, if folks are spending their subsidies at places such as Earthfare it means two things -- their purchasing power decreases which automatically limits portion sizes, and the quality of the food items - and yes healthfulness - increases. In the long run that means a possible lower likelihood of obesity and a possible downward shift in medical costs.

Food for thought?

The LHC is off and running!

2010-03-31T14:15:00.001-04:00

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started up yesterday in Switzerland and has officially surpassed the Tevatron at Fermi Labs in Chicago. The system is not yet up to full speed where scientist expect all the weird/fun shit to happen. That'll happen sometime next year. In the meantime you can place your bets! As The Economist notes:

Paddy Power, an online bookmaker, is offering odds of 11 to 10 that dark matter will be found before black holes and 8 to 1 that black holes will be first. Dark energy, a mysterious force thought to drive the expansion of the universe, trails at 12 to 1. And for those who fancy a real outside bet, the firm is also offering 100 to 1 that the machine will discover God.

My money is on dragons.

It's only the tip of the iceberg

2010-03-30T11:22:00.001-04:00

The State Newspaper ran a very interesting Op-Ed piece today by Bettis Rainsford:

Tax revenues are down all across the state, but many counties and school districts - particularly those in our rural areas -have been particularly hard hit because of the loss of manufacturing plants and the ad valorum tax revenue these plants produced. Worse, the migration of new manufacturing investments to other countries means that many counties and school districts will not be able to attract the kind of capital investment they need in to generate sufficient tax revenue to provide minimally adequate services for their citizens.

There is one type of capital investment, however, that is going to be made and that should be used to assist all counties across our state: electrical generating facilities. The growing demand for electrical power throughout the United States will mean that electric utility companies will be building massive new generating facilities in the years to come.

Most of these new facilities are expected to be extremely large, requiring the investment of billions of dollars, and they will be located in only a few counties. Under current law, they pay extremely large property taxes to the counties in which they are located, resulting in huge financial windfalls for those counties. In the case of one proposed $10 billion investment, the windfall could amount to many tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue.

Because these plants will create relatively few jobs and require a negligible amount of local services, the host counties will experience very little increase in the cost of their local governments. Thus, the huge increase in revenue will almost all fall to the bottom line, providing enormous resources for these fortunate counties.

These electrical generating plants are a part of a regulated industry; electrical consumers have no choice from whom they purchase their electrical power. For stockholder-owned utility companies, rates are set by the S.C. Public Service Commission based upon the total costs of the utility, including taxes. Thus, all of the utility's electrical consumers are, in effect, being forced to pay the taxes that will go entirely to the county in which the generating plant happens to be located.

To understand the magnitude of this issue, one needs to recognize that $25 billion or more will be spent on new generating facilities in South Carolina over the next 15 years. Already SCANA and Santee Cooper are in the beginning stages of a $10 billion investment. Duke Power has an $11 billion project in the works. Other utilities may soon follow. If the taxes from these investments were shared on a per capita basis with all of the counties and school districts rather than being kept by just the few counties where the plants will be located, the vast majority of our counties and school districts would recognize significant increases in revenue.

For example, using very conservative assumptions, Allendale schools and local governments might receive more than $700,000; Marlboro might receive as much as $2 million annually; and Darlington, $4.5 million. Larger counties would benefit too: Richland, Charleston and Greenville would each receive more than $20 million annually.

I believe that our state Legislature should move to correct the inequity that exists in current law. There is no justification for allowing a few counties and school districts to realize such huge windfalls at the expense of electrical consumers from all of the other counties, particularly when so many are struggling just to make ends meet. Bills already have been filed in the Senate and the House to amend current law to provide that the huge tax revenue to be paid on new electrical generating facilities be shared equitably among all of the local governments and school districts. I urge all South Carolinians to study this matter and to ask their representatives in the General Assembly to support this legislation.

Mr. Rainsford, a co-founder of the textile giant Delta Woodside Industries, is president of the Rainsford Development Corp. in Edgefield.

I would argue though, why limit yourself to only new power generating facilities - why not offer a 5 year window and then transition all power generating facilities into this scheme.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fundamental tax reform that needs to go on in this state, but more on those reforms as time goes by.

Colour me shocked.... SHOCKED!

2010-03-29T20:43:00.005-04:00

Knock me over with a feather, we learned today Ricky Martin is... gay.

Here's another one you saw coming. (Or would have seen coming if you gave the slightest shit.)

That's right-- continuing the long tradition of officially coming out of the closet long after anyone cares or even really remembers who you are, late 90's Latin heartthrob Ricky Martin has announced his gaiety on his website, writing: " I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am. RM"

Babaluuuuuuuuuuuu!

Oh. Wait. Wrong Ricky. Oh well! Congratulations anyway, Mr. Martin!

What no People article, no gabies?

Healthcare, Abortion, individual liberties, and going forward

2010-03-29T06:33:00.000-04:00

Protesting against HCR and BHO. Photo: Astrid Riecken/Getty Images

It's been pretty quiet around these parts as I've been thinking about the recent Health care reform law that was signed by President Obama. After more than a year of debates that from the beginning were wildly uncivil and filled with smoke and mirrors the first step of reform has been completed - but the job is far from done.

In the end beyond death panels the two biggest concerns were the supposed loss of liberty with the notion that this is a healthcare take over (which persists in the postmortem of the bill passing) and that this law now somehow expands federal funding of abortion.

The first concern, which is the nebulous argument of the "loss of liberty" is even more nuanced than that about abortion. Many anti-reformist say that this is a Government Takeover of Healthcare, and say that the federal government can't mandate folks buy a private product.

This actually caused a flame war on the facebooks as I was arguing in favor of the mandate on a friend's mother's wall. (My friend's mother supports reform as well).

Current Jurisprudence actually lends to the credibility of the Federal Government not only mandating the purchase of insurance through the commerce clause but taxing individuals for not purchasing it vis - a -vis Congress' constitutional authority to levy a tax, fines, fees, what have you and this particular enumerated power is very broad. I'm not going to spell out all the specifics but through the magic of the internet provide you a link to a .pdf file from Congressional Research Service on the constitutionality of mandates. Enjoy. It's interesting to note that most folks hemming and hawing about loss of personal liberties in the healthcare debates were very quiet and supportive, and still are, of the Patriot act and all the personal liberties it abridged.

And to date I've yet to find anyone who can explain to me how a government telling you to purchase a private product is a takeover of that industry. Anyone care to explain that one?

Now for... abortion. I'm pro life -- any many ways probably more pro-life than my coreligionists, but that can be explained later. The Senate language for community health centers did not provide language which excludes abortion. In every other instance in the senate bill of funding for specific healthcare programs exclusionary language was used. Many on the far right of the pro - life movement pounced on this one line exclusion and the snow ball effect ensued.

In the end this caused a nasty divide pitting the USCCB against a bunch of Nuns and the CHA.

Who's right.

Well many would argue that it's the Bishops, not just because they're bishops, but because they're right. For many Catholics it's a simple matter of obedience, the Bishops' lawyers (who increasingly come from far right blindly ideological organizations) wouldn't advise the Bishops wrongly, and the Bishops wouldn't promulgate their decision based on false or misconstrued information so they must be right... right.

On the other hand you have the nuns who have been driving as far left as they can since the SVC and who are more likely to be seen escorting women to abortion clinics than praying for them or offering them the assistance they would need in prenatal care, while a foil to the Bishops and a P.R. boon for left leaning catholics, substantively because of such escort services don't have much credibility in this argument despite their best intentions and the great works they do helping the poor. And the Catholic Health Association ... well they're a hospital, and like other industries will suffer and benefit under reform, in this case hospitals and physicians will benefit more with federal subsidies so their support of the reform law has the appearance of impropriety.

Let's get one thing straight. All three groups, the Bishops, the Nuns, the hospitals -- wanted to see healthcare reform. All three don't want to see federal funding of abortion, and yet they devolved into a pissing match over the absence of one sentence regarding community healthcare, and then the fall out and recriminations over Bart Stupack getting an executive order reinforcing the language in the senate bill and reaffirming the Hyde amendment.

For my own part, while the E.O. was nice, the critics were right -- it was a piece of fluff. BUT it wasn't fluff because of the Obama is the most pro abortion meme - but because it's unnecessary, Hyde stands.

Simply put there was no abrogation of Hyde in the text of the bill. The mere absence of Hyde like language from the community health centers portion of the bill does not change the fact that funding for community health centers, while now being increased, still goes through HHS contra what Kathleen Parker argues today in the Post. From Mother Jones.

pro-life groups say the funding for the community health centers funding will be exempt from the Hyde Amendment because it's not being spent through the normal appropriations process. It’s true that these funds will reach the centers through a different legislative route, but it doesn’t matter. As Jost has explained in a detailed analysis (PDF), all of the community health clinic money is going to end up in the same "pot" at the Department of Health and Human Services. And, he writes, since all HHS funding “is subject to the Hyde Amendment, these funds cannot be used to pay for abortions."

Kathleen is right about one thing -- they Hyde Amendment is reupped annually on appropriations bills for HHS. But the Amendment applies to all funds at HHS, not just those appropriated at that one time in that one act, otherwise abortion access would already be possible with the subsequent bills that provide extend additional funding to HHS and it's programs.

The bill has passed, the only thing to do now is work on strengthening legislation to protect life and expand coverage while battling costs. Daivd Frum who has received more than his share of flak from the right of his party recognizes this and has come up with some common sense conservative steps going forward that will further reform the system. More and more conservatives are stepping up to bat against the Beck/Limbaugh Tea Party movement, and offering constructive critiques and ways forward. Personally I yearn for further enactments of the Wyden-Bennett proposals for reform, and yearn absolutely yearn for the day when the following four things happen: the employer based health care system is abolished, health insurance companies can sell plans across lines, health insurance companies exemption from anti-trust laws are ended, and when we end the abortion debate once and for all and some smart insurance types come up with an eye-med like company to cover all manner of 'reproductive health,' from birth control and IVF to elective abortions and gender reassignment surgeries.

QOTD: specious

2010-03-23T08:38:00.001-04:00

"To think that somehow the rules of evidence can lead you to the right answer is just not right. There should not have been a trial."

So said Jordan W. Lorence, a lawyer with Alliance Defense Fund on the Proposition 8 trial. Our entire legal system is built upon the trying of fact, which is why this statement is so absurd.

Beyond Left and Right: Gays against marriage equality

2010-03-16T21:05:00.000-04:00

I suppose the one thing both these folks have in common is that they're radical. From Just Out:

Controversial Portland author Jack Donovan(Jack Malebranche) is sounding the alarm as to why marriage equality hurts society, but military equality helps everyone.

Donovan, whose book Androphilia: A Manifesto has become a controversial cult classic for man-loving men in the Northwest and nationwide, recently partnered with the unconventionally conservative blogAlternative Right . His newest essay, “The Homosexual Question: Why Same-Sex Marriage is Wrong, but Repealing DADT is Right,” is just as thought-provoking, challenging, shocking, polarizing, and important as Androphilia and its follow-up Blood Brotherhood and Other Rites of Male Alliance.

And on the other end of the spectrum you have this from tidbit picked up by Towleroad:

An interview with Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld by filmmaker Bruce LaBruce in the current issue of VICE magazine touches briefly on the subject of same-sex marriage. Lagerfeld doesn't believe in it.

LABRUCE: You are against the idea of gay marriage. I totally agree with you on that.
LAGERFELD: Yes, I’m against it for a very simple reason: In the 60s they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life.

LABRUCE: It’s normalizing.
LAGERFELD: For me it’s difficult to imagine—one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be for the baby? I don’t know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.

LABRUCE: I take it you don’t want children.
LAGERFELD: If I were interested in children, I would be a godfather—or a godmother. I don’t like the idea of taking people out of their lives and their contexts. If there were a child I wanted to adopt, I would try to find the family of the child and give them the money for an education in his life and his context.

Radical Masculinists and Fairies unite! These must be the folks working for Maggie Gallagher.

Columbia wants Google Fiber (so does the rest of SC)

2010-03-16T18:47:00.000-04:00

I read with excitement about how folks in Columbia (and Greenville by the way, and I'm sure some other fellow SC communities) are getting über-excited about Google Fiber.* How can we not? In this new century, much like our Automakers in the last, Google represents American creativity, enginuity and leadership. Besides, the way things are our internet service providers are terrible monopolies who really could give a hoot about their customers -- have you called Time Warner and tried to get a cable guy to come out? What about AT&T and their technicians?

My excitement didn't last long though. It gave way to disapointment. I thought: as good as Google is we South Carolinians shouldn't have to sell ourselves in quirky marketing gigs for higher speed internet access, or even access at all. Because it was only last year that our State's leaders (in what was the saddest, most undervalued giveaway in the state's history - worse than when we thought we could plug state budget holes by selling large portions of state property) sold 90% of ETV's broadcast bandwidth to two companies, Clearwire and BridgeMaxx for the low low price of $143 million over 20 years. (Yeah I mentioned this yesterday briefly)

That's $7.15 million a year, and when our state has a budget of $5 billion that's 0.143% of our annual budget, if you view the state's budget like others, then that money accounts for 0.034% of our state balance sheet. I call that a give away, don't you?

Wow, had they thought about it reasonably... had they stood up to the state's communications monopolies - here's looking at you Ma Bell and Time Warner - we wouldn't have to be so excited about convincing Google to come here to set up a living lab for their high speed internet. If a bit more sunlight had been thrown on to the process of putting out the bid let alone awarding the contracts, who knows perhaps Google would gladly have approached us. Instead we sold a public trust for less than pennies on the dollar, only to see those two companies do what.... >>crickets<<

*It's funny that Columbia has a Facebook Group dedicated to Google Fiber, granted they're the number one social media site... but Google does have it's own social media sites with Buzz and Orkut.

The FCC must have been watching the happenings in SC

2010-03-15T18:06:00.000-04:00

According the Huffington Post, the FCC is unveiling sweeping changes to America's National Broadband Plan. This was a key component of the Obama Administration's Recovery Act. It has the potential to effect more than 100 million households in the country and will increase the connectivity/download speeds to more than 100 megabits per second... that's really really fast.

In their efforts to modernize the plan though it looks like they are mimicking the efforts of South Carolina's legislature.

Over the past three years in South Carolina the legislature has looked for a way to sell off the excess bandwidth of the ETV system. One of the biggest concerns the republican dominated legislature faced was a belief that they must sell the bandwidth into the private market because otherwise it would be government intervention... you know the drill. The plan would have been quietly put through had it not been for the efforts of the Progressive Network and their executive director Brett Bursey. Their efforts though noble, were fruitless and the legislature sold off the bandwidth in two twenty year contracts valuing $143 million.

The two companies who were awarded the contract in October of 2009, Clearwire and BridgeMaxx, have no information about their plans for South Carolina's Broadband Spectrum available on their websites. Other than press releases dated from mid 2009 when the committee recommended the state make the deal with the two companies there's not been a peep.

Hopefully these two companies, who are poised to also reap the benefits of the proposed FCC changes, will be a bit more visible than they have been in the Palmetto State.

Filling out the Census

2010-03-15T17:35:00.001-04:00

We got the 2010 Census form in the mail today. I decided to go ahead and fill it out and send it back in. I have an unusual affinity for filling out government documents and sending them in as quick as possible -- my taxes are always done by the first week of February.

I tingled in anticipation as I got to a certain question that listed my relationship to the owner of the house, my partner. We had planned to "gay bomb" the census. (I encourage all of my LGBT friends who live with their partners and consider themselves common law or officially married to do so)

And while our numbers won't be counted in the official tally of married couples, this will be the first census that recognizes us as a category of folks, according to CNN:

The 2010 census is the first that will report the numbers of same-sex couples who describe themselves as married, or more specifically, who use the terms husband and wife.

The number of same-sex couples who identify as married will be released separately from the national count on a state-by-state basis, according to Census Bureau reports.

Those couples will not be included in the official national count of married couples because the Census Bureau does not have time before April to change its editing processes -- which "recode" the answer of any person who says he or she is a spouse in a same-sex marriage to "unmarried partner."

So for now it's symbolic, but what a powerful symbol it'll be. I can't wait to see what the records in South Carolina indicate.

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus, ctd. II

2010-03-09T20:13:00.000-05:00

Our Lady of Atonement Anglican Use Parish in San Antonio Texas

The past few weeks have seen the largest affirmation of Anglicanorum Coetibus on these shores with 100 Anglican Church in America parishes voting to join the Catholic Church. This communion of churches does not have a presence in South Carolina - but, according to the website of the Diocese of the Eastern U.S. (DEUS for short interestingly enough), has three parishes in North Carolina: St Stephen's in Franklin, Our Lady of Good Counsel in Jacksonville, and St. Peter's in Waynesville.

As for disenchanted Anglicans in South Carolina, the episcopacy is gearing up for a turf war with the presiding bishop as more and more dioceses and churches move to distance themselves or separate out right from the national Episcopal Church. Oh the troubles of Charleston, meanwhile up river in Columbia - as Trinity Cathedral parish nears the end of the renovations - the upper diocese is awaiting the installation of their new Bishop, Andrew Waldo, who will hold the center much as the current, retiring ordinary Dorsey Henderson, if not tilt theologically liberal. His election was a surprise and came out of much tension and consternation.

Back to the Anglicans walking on the new bridge across the Tiber (bridge = the latin Pons, for which we get Pontifex, Pontiff, Pope, get it?). This week we got a glimpse body and soul of what the new Ordinariates will be like. First the Soul. Cardinal Levada gave a rousing speech on the new Ordinariates while in Canada - the goal of Christian Unity doesn't mean absorption into the monolith of the Roman Catholic Church. The Cardinal uses a distinctive, and well thought metaphor to describe the Union of these Anglicans with Rome. From Whispers in the Loggia:

Visible union with the Catholic Church does not mean absorption into a monolith, with the absorbed body being lost to the greater whole, the way a teaspoon of sugar would be lost if dissolved in a gallon of coffee. Rather, visible union with the Catholic Church can be compared to an orchestral ensemble. Some instruments can play all the notes, like a piano. There is no note that a piano has that a violin or a harp or a flute or a tuba does not have. But when all these instruments play the notes that the piano has, the notes are enriched and enhanced. The result is symphonic, full communion. One can perhaps say that the ecumenical movement wishes to move from cacophony to symphony, with all playing the same notes of doctrinal clarity, the same euphonic chords of sanctifying activity, observing the rhythm of Christian conduct in charity, and filling the world with the beautiful and inviting sound of the Word of God. While the other instruments may tune themselves according to the piano, when playing in concert there is no mistaking them for the piano. It is God’s will that those to whom the Word of God is addressed, the world, that is, should hear one pleasing melody made splendid by the contributions of many different instruments...

[The Catholic Church] believes that she is the mystical body of Christ and she is convinced that the Church of Christ subsists in her because she recognizes that, while she is like the piano that has all of the notes, that is, all of the elements of sanctification and truth, many of those notes are shared with other communities and those communities often have beautiful ways of sounding the notes that can lead to a heightened appreciation of truth and holiness, both within the Catholic Church and within her partners in the ecumenical endeavour....

To return to our earlier metaphor, people long for discordant tones and voices to be harmonized, united, and when an individual or, indeed, a community, is ready for unity with the Church of Christ that subsists in the Catholic Church, it would be a betrayal of Catholic ecumenical principles and goals to refuse to embrace them and to embrace them with all the distinctive gifts that enrich the Church, that help her approach the world symphonically, sounding together or united. Just as there is one Saviour, so there is one universal sacrament of Salvation, the Church. The Eastern Churches that are united to Rome are enjoined to preserve their distinct institutions, liturgical rites, ecclesiastical traditions and way of Christian life. By so doing, the Second Vatican Council teaches they do not harm the Church’s unity, but rather, make it manifest.

The experience we are embarking on with Anglicanorum coetibus promises also to make the Church’s fundamental unity manifest by adding to her life distinctive expressions of Christ’s gifts of holiness and truth. Nevertheless, a strict comparison between the Anglicans and the Eastern Church and Catholic Churches would not be correct, I hasten to add. The Eastern Churches, like the Ukrainian Catholic Church so numerous in Canada, are in the fullest sense of the term “Churches” since they have valid apostolic succession and thus valid Eucharist. They are therefore called Churches “sui juris” because they have their own legal structures of governance, all while maintaining bonds of hierarchical communion with the Bishop of Rome. The term Church is applied differently to the Anglican Communion for reasons rehearsed over a century ago by Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae curae. So the legal framework for Anglican communities seeking full communion precisely as communities would be different from that of Eastern Churches. They remain a part of the Western Latin Church tradition. That is why the Holy Father has decided to erect personal ordinarities in order to provide pastoral care for such groups who wish to share their gifts corporately with their Catholic sisters and brothers and with whom they have shared a long history before the Reformation in the 16th century.

Running on the idea of the eastern churches, let's turn to the Australian Bishop who's been a kind of point man on the Roman side outside of the Roman Curia for all things Anglicanorum, Peter Elliott. From Damian Thompson:

Anglicanorum coetibus establishes a distinct community for Anglicans who choose to return to unity with the Successor of St Peter. But it is not accurate to call this an “Anglican Rite Ordinariate”. A better expression would be an “Anglican Use Personal Ordinariate”, that is, a structured community maintaining its own traditions, at the same time enjoying distinct liturgical privileges within the Roman Rite. To understand the proposed structure we may compare it with similar structures that already exist within the Catholic Church.
The Military Ordinariate
The proposed Anglican Use Ordinariate may be compared to the Military Ordinariate, set up in many countries, including Australia, the UK and the US. The Anglican Church of Australia has a similar structure. Anglicanorum coetibus refers to this structure in footnote 12.
A Military Ordinariate is kind of diocese covering a whole country but also “present” in places outside the country where military personnel serve, such as Afghanistan or East Timor. The bishop of the armed forces exercises ordinary jurisdiction over military chaplains and Catholic members of the armed forces – wherever they may be. Therefore his ministry relates directky to people and is more personal than territorial.
However, the structure proposed in Anglicanorum coetibis for an Anglican Use Personal Ordinariate is closer to a territorial diocese. There could be several Ordinariates in one country, which is not the case with the military structure. Therefore to better understand an Anglican Use Ordinariate we look into the venerable ancient Eastern Rites within the Catholic Church, properly called the Eastern Catholic Churches.
One Church: East and West
These autonomous Churches are in communion with Rome, but their members are not “Roman Catholics”, that is, not Catholics of the Roman Rite. I now need to open up something essential that many Anglicans do not understand – that the Catholic Church is not a monolithic structure. She is a communion of Churches, led by bishops who are in communion with the Bishop of Rome and with one another, members of one apostolic college. This unity through a communion of particular or local Churches is set out in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church promulgated by the Second Vatican Council. Lumen Gentium, 23.
Every diocese is a “particular Church”, governed by a successor of the apostles. This is why we talk of the Church of Rome, the Church of Melbourne, the Church of Washington etc. Through a complex history beginning in apostolic times, most of these particular Churches today are grouped together within the Roman Rite. Not only are they in communion with the Church of Rome, the See of Peter, but they also use the liturgy of Rome. The members of these particular Churches may be known as Roman Catholics, or Catholics of the Roman Rite, or Latin Catholics.
At the same time, many other particular churches are grouped within a series of ancient Eastern Rites, also in communion with Rome, but using liturgies appropriate to their origins: Syrian, Greek, Egyptian, Armenian etc. Their members are Ukrainian Catholics, Maronite Catholics, Coptic Catholics etc. They are not Roman Catholics. This is why it is wrong to lump us all together and call everyone in communion with Rome a “Roman Catholic”. I can describe myself in those terms, but my fellow Ukrainian Catholic should not – and will not – describe himself as an “RC”. So to sum it up, within the Catholic Church there is a wide range of Catholics and worshipping communities of Christian people.
Diocese and Eparchy
Looking more closely into these Eastern Catholic Churches, we first find typical territorial dioceses in the home country: Ukraine, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, India, Iraq etc. But then we find a second kind of diocese for those members of these Churches who have emigrated and are now scattered across a country such as Canada or Australia. This kind of diocese is usually, not always, called an eparchy.
In an eparchy an Eastern Rite bishop has jurisdiction over all the clergy and lay faithful of his Rite, within a country or within a region in a big country such as Canada. For example, the Ukrainian Catholic bishop with a fine cathedral in North Melbourne is the bishop of the Eparchy of St Peter and Paul, Australia. He has ordinary jurisdiction over all Ukrainian Catholics in Australia. His people are also known as “Greek Catholics” because they celebrate the liturgy of Constantinople, the Byzantine Rite.
The same kind of structure also applies to the Maronite diocese of St Maroun, the Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas and the Eparchy of St Michael the Archangel for Melchite Greek Catholics, all based in Sydney. The territory of these bishops coexists with the dioceses of the Roman Rite in Australia and the bishops are members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
The Anglican Use Ordinariate
The Ordinary of an Anglican Use Personal Ordinariate will be like an eparch, having jurisdiction and pastoral care over a series of parishes, “juridically comparable to a diocese”. But he will “teach, sanctify and govern” within the Western tradition, the Roman Rite, and that is the interesting and new development in Anglicanorum coetibus. There is also another closer similarity between the proposed Anglican Use Personal Ordinariates and Eastern Catholic eparchies. That may be described as a distinctive “ethos” based on a liturgical tradition and a wide range of customs, history, spiritualities and culture, never forgetting the personal bonds between people and families. In your case this will be the Anglican patrimony. We will look more closely at this in due course.
In full communion with the Successor of St Peter, members of each Personal Ordinariate will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Members of an Ordinariate will be able to worship according to own liturgical “use”, while still being Catholics of the Roman Rite. So in the Ordinariate you will be “Roman Catholics” or “Latin Catholics”, part of the largest group in the Universal Church. At the same time, like the Eastern Rite Catholics, you will be the bearers of a distinctive and respected tradition. Your Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside bishops of the Roman Rite dioceses and the bishops of Eastern Rite eparchies and dioceses, finding their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region.

Still no one knows exactly how the liturgies of the Ordinariate will look, whether it's an expansion of the current Anglican Use or some new (old?) liturgical structure. Beyond praxis and structure of the Ordinariate is there support mechanisms in place in the state for these 100 parishes of soon to be new Catholics? While there's a support group for the Ordinariate in the UK, there's no formal support group group in the US, but that's probably because the ground work for the structures have been laid with the network of Anglican Use parishes in the states - though that's not to say they won't need all the prayers and material support they can get from local Roman Catholics.

Previous Posts:

This Week in Anglicanorum Coetibus

This Week in Anglicanorum Coetibus, ctd.

Spire Envy

2010-03-09T17:03:00.001-05:00

photo from here.

It's a proud day for the city of Charleston, and the Catholic citizenry in particular.

The Holy City's sky line just became holier. One hundred years in the making, and it finally happened, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston has been "completed" with the addition of the church's steeple. You can see a bloggy time line of the steeple construction and installation at the Cathedral Restoration website, along with additional pictures, and video of each step in the process.

The new steeple is gorgeous, Its design is a marriage of traditional concepts with modern design in order to keep the whole structure safe in case of hurricanes and earthquakes - two natural disasters that Charleston is intimately familiar with. The church now stands at 167 ft. tall.

According to The Post and Courier:

That's less than 20 feet below the tip of St. Michael's Church spire just down Broad Street and about 30 feet lower than St. Philip's Church -- the other tall landmark in the oldest part of downtown Charleston.

Uh oh, think I'm suffering from spire envy. Actually in this case, it's not so much about the height, no this isn't a euphemistic joke... it's more about the proportions of the copper structure to the brownstone belfry/tower. It's most apparent in the above photo with St. Michaels in the background. I'm hoping that it's just a camera trick, from looking at photos from the restoration site, it may be a camera trick... or it could be the shiny newness of the copper structure, perhaps it needs to oxidize to a nice green - which could take 20 years.

But, I'm happy for our see church, and the Holy city, and i'm sure that it'll grow on me beyond the appreciation for the individual structure itself.

The Post and Courier has more photos here.

Book Review: The Last Cato

2010-03-08T18:34:00.000-05:00

The Last Cato - Matilde Asensi, $13.95

In high school Iloved reading the Divine Commedy. As I was clicking through BN.com I found the book The Last Cato. Because the quick caption on the back mentioned that this book used elements of the Divine Comedy, I had to pick it up and read it. Got to love impulse shopping.

I do admit though that prior to reading this novel, though not before buying it, for better or worse, I checked a couple of reviews. Most people started by saying "if you liked the Da Vinci code..." which was, to be honest, off putting.

The Da Vinci Code was a poorly written American novel that combined the worst aspects of left and right wingnuttery - antiChristian pomo-paganism and a baseless obsession with conspiracy theories. It only grazed plausibility with loose connections to any facts surrounding the historical characters or groups included in the work, which is why it deserves wholeheartedly the categorization as fiction. Like I said before though, it was poorly written fiction.

The Last Cato, which was published three years prior to the Da Vinci Code, does not embrace wingnuttery, is not antichristian, though it's not a hagiography of the modern churches. It does criticize utilizing liberal historical criticism, and veiled feminist criticism, and to a degree it contains a certain level of religious skepticism and anti-clericalism - which seems to fit the profile of the author: Woman born in continental Europe during the 60s - a stereotype true, but one that fits. But one thing is clear - the work is not a part of the bandwagon that says that religion is bad and that modern churches have ruined what was otherwise some good morals.

The book utilizes the historical and literary context of Dante's Comedy, to take our characters across the ancient Christian capitols of the Mediterranean world from catacomb to catacomb in search of the stolen relics of the lignum crucis. The narrative incorporates often neglected themes from Byzantine and early Medieval Church history to paint an historical picture, that while clearly fictionalized, has plausibility.

That's not to say that the book is without problems. The characters at times seemed shallow, and unknowable. There were also problems within the character dialog as well as narration with bland colloquialisms and out of place references that could have been used without. When this happened, and thankfully it happened rarely, it seemed as if there was a rupture in the story telling. It was as if the author was trying to deliberately input an ideological point that was otherwise obvious within the characters construction. The chief problem though was the translation. Originally written in Spanish, the English translation at times butchered what to that point was evenly flowing text - which could help explain some of the other narrative flaws because inherently something is always lost in translation

On the whole though, it was an enjoyable read, once I got into it, I really didn't want to put it down. It made more sense and held more appeal than the tripe that Dan Brown puts out. If done properly, it would also make a better movie than his work. One can only hope that future editions will be translated more accurately - and from looking at the titles the author has produced since the release of the Last Cato in 2001 - that more of her work will be translated.

A Pink Success!

2010-03-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

The Pink Party was last night, and it was a total success. After weeks of meeting and planning, and this past week stressing out - it went off without a hitch. The facilities looked marvelous, the food and drinks were delicious. We honored Mayor Bob for the 20 years of support he's given the LGBT community and gave the floor to the candidates, and they were spot on. I don't have the exact breakdown between the two honorees, but we raised $13,000.00.

I met a lot of interesting campaign insiders from campaigns and candidates who were not being honored last night, not because we were against them - but because it was a party geared towards the mayoral race. I can say this, there is a ground swell of interest amongst candidates, local and statewide to have a pink party for them. (If any of you are reading this visit the Contact page of the Vote Pink! website and e-mail us) I can say, and I hope I'm not saying it prematurely, that there will be at least one more pink party this year -- so stay tuned.

But for now, with the party behind me, I can reorient my life and focus on other projects, including writing this blog more often -- I promise! That and reading. But before I do all that, I'm headed to Cheraw for a nice quiet break.

(Photos will be forthcoming!)

SVILUPPO: I may be too exhausted from the Pink Party to dish the mad details, but local favourite The Shop Tart wasn't. Check her post for deets and pics. And yes, I wore that pink bow tie and I'm fine with being a cliche.

Upcoming Birthday

2010-03-02T22:08:00.000-05:00

It's all I can do to make it through this week, with the Pink Party fast approaching my brain has been focused like a laser, and it'll be sweet relief once that's over and done with. Then I get to look forward to a weekend that'll be just as packed with a birthday party, a trip to Cheraw, and a Sunday night Oscar party hosted by a yard sale with legs.

So I'll be looking forward to serene quiet of my 27th Birthday next Wednesday, March 10. It'll be serene because I'll be joining the YACs in a Vesper service. It'll be a great relief compared to these hectic days.

On The Atlantic ReDesign

2010-03-02T21:05:00.000-05:00

So why not put my thoughts out there... everyone else has.

I'm an avid reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog The Daily Dish. Recently the entire Atlantic site underwent a drastic redesign that has riled up the readers and bloggers alike. Sullivan unloads here.

Ezra Klein, of the Washington Post, put in his two cents yesterday, and made some valid points:

The problem for the Atlantic is that they were a monthly institution entering a daily medium. Some magazines, like The American Prospect and The New Republic, solved that problem by accelerating their publication cycle to include daily Web articles and telling their staffs to blog. But some, like the Atlantic and the Washington Monthly, held back on changing the actual institution, and instead hired bloggers with existing audiences to come create daily content under the magazine's banner.
That worked out fine until the magazine wanted an online presence of its own only to realize that their acquisition strategy had left them an audience loyal to the individual "voices" rather than to the brand.
The Atlantic's redesign seems like a bet to re-center the Web site around the Atlantic as an institution rather than leaving it as a web hosting service for a couple of bloggers. What's causing the outcry is that in order to drive traffic to the new channels, they're integrating the blogs (save for the traffic-generating beast that is Sullivan's Daily Dish) into the channels. That way the readers of Ta-Nehisi's blog, to use one example, will become readers of the culture channel, which includes Ta-Nehisi's content.

If the Publisher's main concern is for the Magazine and its Web presence, then I can't help but hearken back to last year. Sullivan made an appeal to readers, that if they liked his blogging, they should support The Atlantic Monthly. I became a subscriber. My new found enthusiasm for the magazine has spread to friends of mine who are also now new subscribers to The Atlantic.

Not only this, but Sullivan has on several occasions linked internally to other pages/stories within the Atlantic. Beyond this any redesign could be minimized in an effort to drive traffic to their channels. To use a terrible metaphor, supported cross pollination seems like the better solution to laboratory hybridization.

Now if only someone could convince the fine folks over at Sandlapper to do a redesign and hire some bloggers, but finding bloggers in this state who, while they may be partisan, aren't beholden Party consultants and could drive traffic is damned impossible.

Seeing Red, feeling Blue? Vote Pink!

2010-03-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a hectic past month, part of the reason I've not been blogging much. We're down to the wire and in just two days it'll be time to Party and help raise money for two worthy candidates to succeed Mayor Bob in Columbia.

If you're in town Thursday night, and you want to come out and celebrate Mayor Bob, and support "The Steves" then come to 701 Whaley.*

*A $50 donation is suggested at the door.

Sunday's were meant for eating good food

2010-02-28T15:59:00.000-05:00

Sundays were meant for eating good food. Today, with the beautiful weather, was no exception.

Normally this foodie household would be more than happy to head out to our favourite brunch spots of @116 or DiPratos, but today was so beautiful we were inspired to cook for ourselves.

It is always an endeavor that surprises because as much as we like to eat other folks cooking - to toot our own horns - we can do a pretty damn good job ourselves.

So what did the House of Louise prepare today?

Spinach Quiche and Sweet Potato Hash with Caw Caw Creek Sausage.

That's right lots of fresh, natural ingredients with some store brand goods. Sandra Lee would be proud and more than a little impressed with this semi homemade feast.

First the Spinach Quiche.

First we took thick sliced smoked bacon and with meat scissors cut four pieces into 8 piece sectionals. This made latter steps easier. We cooked the bacon in a frying pan until it was good and crispy and removed from the heat. Using the rendered bacon fat we sauteed five garlic cloves that had been pressed and 1 finely chopped onion. The garlic and onions sauteed until they were golden brown.

Meanwhile we grated fresh Vermont white cheddar, Amish Swiss, and Asiago cheese - about a cup worth. In a large bowl we added to the cheese mixture 7 eggs and two cups heavy whipping cream. This was then beat; fine sea salt, Cayenne pepper and paprika along with ground porchini mushrooms were added to the egg mixture and stirred in.

Back on the stove top the bag of organic baby spinach was added to the garlic and onions and were themselves sauteed.

In the glass pie pan we placed a Publix brand pie crust and blind baked the crust for ten minutes.

Once removed from the oven we further crushed the bacon and sprinkled it on the bottom of the crusted pan. Then we added our spinach, garlic, and onions making as neat a layer as possible. Finally the egg mixture was poured over the top filling the pie pan. Once more Porchini, salt and pepper were dusted on top of the raw quiche.

The quiche was then put in the oven on the center rack, set at 375 degrees. For ten minutes we let the quiche bake. In the mean time more of our three cheeses were grated to be used as the top of the quiche. After the ten minutes were up the cheese was sprinkled on top and the pie was placed back in the oven to cook for 30 minutes.

The Sweet Potato Hash with Caw Caw Creek Sausage

This dish was prepared simultaneously with the Quiche. 2 large sweet potatoes, skin on, cut in cubes (½ to ¾ inch – whatever size you prefer or have the OCD to cut) 1 medium red onion, cut to a similar size as the potatoes 6-8 ounces of sliced sausage links or other salty, fatty meat (bacon,pancetta, etc) 1 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp butter 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper (and/or white pepper)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil on one side of the stove. Parboil the diced sweet potatoes for about 5 minutes, until just fork tender, then drain them thoroughly.

While the pot of water is coming to a boil, place a large skillet over medium heat. After the skillet is hot, add some olive oil and fry the sausage (I added oil since the sausage was rather lean), cooking it completely. Note: I melted a dab of bacon fat (I keep a jar by the stove) in the olive oil. If you're using bacon, you can just cook it in its own fat. Once the meat is cooked, set it aside to drain on a paper towel.

Using the rendered fat in the skillet saute the onions until they are soft and translucent, just beginning to caramelize. Add the sweet potatoes, garlic, butter and thyme leaves and season to taste. Allow the potatoes to caramelize on each side, being careful not to stir too much. Once the potatoes have a bit of golden color on each side, add the meat back to the pan and serve.

The dishes complemented each other very well, and were served with a cold and crisp glass of Saint Hillaire Champagne. Although we had it with spinach quiche today, the hash would go just as well with a poached egg, and/or hollandaise over it.

These recipes may not have come from the Lee Bros but they hit the spot and were definitely Simple. Fresh. & Southern. Another great Sunday afternoon, with lenty of time to spare to enjoy the spring like weather and a good book on the porch, or a laptop to tell you all about it.

SC Book Festival

2010-02-28T09:18:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I spent the entire day at the South Carolina Book Festival. I managed to come away with a slightly lighter wallet, but more full bookshelf. A friend from Greenville came down for the day. The Goal: Find interesting books and have the authors, if present, autograph them.

We started in the exhibition hall visiting the various publishing houses. After making it through and purchasing the latest book by Ron Rash - Burning Bright, as well as his bestseller Serena, and what will probably be her break out book - Bloodroot by Amy Green. Then we headed to lunch.

After lunch we met up with my our friend Bill and managed to get Ron Rash to sign our books. Then we sat in on a section about the history of the NAACP and human rights with historian Patricia Sullivan and SC Native Son and professor of Literature Jack Shuler. It was very interesting to hear the discussion on these histories. Did you know that Woodrow Wilson was the person to introduce segregation into the federal government? Yeah I didn't either. I usually just think of Wilson as the man who got us through WWI and planted the seeds for the future United Nations.

Next up, and most exciting for me, was to sit in on the session with the Lee Bros. and Brian Dukes. Before the session though I had to go and buy their latest book: Simple Fresh Southern. And ah hell, while there I couldn't resist buying yet another book: Pioneering American Wine, a collection of writings by one of America's first viticulturalists.

It was a really interesting session. The Lee Brothers are both extremely personable. As the panel came to an end the audience were given the opportunity to ask questions. I asked two.

The first question, as I told the panelists, was probably more important than the second. Tomato, Mustard of Vinegar? I got more than a few chuckles and claps and all three did their best to avoid the answering the question and decided to divvy it up each taking a sauce without admitting what their preferred sauces were. The second question was about heirloom foods, a concept that all three panelists endorse.

After the panel I ran to the signing area and waited in line with the gaggle of other folks for an autograph... but I had a plan. I told my friend from Greenville and he laughed - brilliant. I made it to the front of the line and as I presented the book for signature reminded the Lee Brothers that I was the one that asked the BBQ question. I didn't have to remind them, they knew. I told them they didn't have to say it out loud, but if below their signatures they would put a T, M, or V that's all I needed to know. Ted didn't bother with the letter but wrote the word out. Matt on the other hand, hesitated - unsure if he should really put it down. I told them their secret would be safe with me, and he wrote it down. Success.

At this point in time it was getting late, the festival was drawing to a close. But I was still lacking one signature - Amy Green. Only the week prior she was on NPR, her book has been gaining critical acclaim. I coveted that signature.

It was 5:00pm there was only 20 minutes left and she was participating in a session and would be signing outside of the room. I slipped into the room and heard the last few minutes of the session. As it was concluding her companion author Charles McCain was invited to ask a trivia question for the folks in the room if you got the answer you won a prize, a book! Despite only being their for five minutes I raised my hand was called on, and won. After that I slipped back out the room and waited for Amy - she signed my book.

The day was a total success.

SVILUPPO: Many many apologies to Author Chalres McCain, since he was the one who asked the question and I mentioned it here. It is only fair to mention that he is the author of An Honorable German. It should be noted to from that session I also learned two very important styles of fiction writing - those based on free form, Ms. Green, and those based on meticulous accuracy, Mr. McCain.

As for the question - what is the Latin Motto of the State of South Carolina - Dum Spiro Spero... here's to Boy's State! Mr. McCain class of '73, myself '00.

Insurance Carriers

2010-02-27T07:32:00.000-05:00

You know it's a good day when one of the most conservative industries in America starts marketing to the gays.

The first week of Lent and Sushi

2010-02-27T07:22:00.000-05:00

What's the connection between the first week of Lent and Sushi?

Tempura.

In Latin we call the Ember Days the Quatuor Tempora, or "four times" of the year. This Latin term gave rise to a form of foodwhich I am sure you all know.
In the 16th c. Spanish and Portuguese missionaries settled in Nagasaki, Japan. From their interest in inculturation and out of sensitivity for the ways of the people, they tried to make meatless meals for Embertide, which is a fast time. They started deep-frying shrimp. The Japanese ran with and developed it to perfection. This is “tempura,” again from the Latin term for the Ember Days "Quatuor Tempora".

Quadragesima

2010-02-16T21:28:00.001-05:00

The Season of Lent is close upon us. The universal call to fasting and prayer and reorientation of our lives begins with the donning of ashes and continues through Holy Week and the celebration of the Paschal Feast Easter Sunday.

For some back ground on Lent, and the history of it see Catholic Encyclopedia.

So how are you observing Lent?

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus, ctd.

2010-02-15T06:56:00.000-05:00

Previously I noted the rhetorical divide in understanding how the Apostolic Constitution is to be implemented and what it means for Anglo-Catholics. There was other news that flew under the radar.

The "new ecumenism" espoused by the Pope, while an affront to many Anglicans, is being practiced by... you guessed it, the Anglicans.

Per Ruth Gledhill the Methodist Church has pulled a TAC with their organizational President and Vice President saying,

'Methodists approach the Covenant with the Church of England in the spirituality of that Covenant prayer. So when we say to God, "let me have all things let me have nothing," we say it by extension to our partners in the Church of England as well. We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission. In other words we are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a Church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom.'

While Ruth looks at this rather cheekily, we're on the same page about this: how is this any different than Hepworth Primate of the TAC making overtures to the Holy See, leading up to the edict of the Apostolic Constitution? She points out some concerns both communions see as potential stumbling points.

Some Methodists are not sure about whether they want bishops or not, and some Anglicans, from the ranks of those who oppose women bishops, are not sure about whether they want Methodists. The reasons for both oppositions are the same: questions around orders and the Apostolic succession. But the Methodists might be prepared to accept bishops if women are allowed to join their ranks in the Church of England, as Methodism is fully inclusive of women in all leadership positions.

The parallels between these realignments is pretty amazing. It's not just the hurdles that both groups have to overcome it's also a matter of history and direction.

For Anglicans and Catholics there's ARCIC, for the Anglicans and Methodists, in Great Britain it is their covenant. For both it's a matter of realizing that at some point there's nothing more to talk about. For ARCIC it was a matter of lots of good work and then a break down because of the controversial stances the Anglicans have taken ecclisiologically.

In regards to the covenant, it is interesting to note the formal agreement to seek unity was signed in 2003, the same year that ARCIC talks were suspended. That being noted, the covenant seemed to state what was already known, that the two bodies were moving closer theologically and in mission (social justice).

It's also like watching a great game of Chess, or Risk as those who are deemed theologically 'conservative' amass on one side of the board and the liberals on the other, all in the name of 'Christian Unity.' The obvious question is, Unity to what end?

To note, on this side of the Atlantic, I don't believe the United Methodist Church and Episcopal Church have any plans to merge.

They've bought enough rope

2010-02-11T16:43:00.000-05:00

The Financial Times has an interesting article on the Greek Crisis and how it's coming to America. It's worth a read and I'd encourage you to Check it out. The following though reminded me of an historical quote:

the Chinese have sharply reduced their purchases of Treasuries from around 47 per cent of new issuance in 2006 to 20 per cent in 2008 to an estimated 5 per cent last year. Small wonder Morgan Stanley assumes that 10-year yields will rise from around 3.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent this year. On a gross federal debt fast approaching $1,500bn, that implies up to $300bn of extra interest payments – and you get up there pretty quickly with the average maturity of the debt now below 50 months.

Know which quote I'm talking about? It's from Lenin. The Capitalist will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. As for the Chinese, well we know about our delicate relationship with them.

The article argues, almost convincingly, that the Keynesian free lunch does not really exist.

Deficits did not “save” us half so much as monetary policy – zero interest rates plus quantitative easing – did. First, the impact of government spending (the hallowed “multiplier”) has been much less than the proponents of stimulus hoped. Second, there is a good deal of “leakage” from open economies in a globalised world. Last, crucially, explosions of public debt incur bills that fall due much sooner than we expect

I said almost because what Mr. Ferguson fails to mention, and sadly probably on purpose, is that we've been deficit spending for the better part of the last decade. It's called two unfunded wars - which by the way is a foreign investment like international aide if you will... where you give and get nothing in return, the largest (unfunded) entitlement expansion since Medicare - which did nothing to actually address any real costs associated with senior medical care or the price of drugs. It was in fact a give away to the insurance industry. Oh yes and who can forget the tax breaks to correspond with these spending increases... hello!!! Spending increases, not cuts!! You cut taxes you cut spending there's a correlation folks.

$757 billion, the majority of which has yet to still be spent, is still a drop in the bucket compared to the profligate - orgiastic spending spree this country has been on for the last decade.

If we learned anything from OJ Simpson it's that you've got to believe the lie and it must become your truth, so it obviously is for Mr. Fergusun, who's no stranger to revisionism, and his framing of the current mess the world is in. Why after all, they say, should you let the truth come in the way of your smear.

But false premise aside the conclusion that Mr. Fergusun draws is for the most part right.

Explosions of public debt hurt economies in the following way, as numerous empirical studies have shown. By raising fears of default and/or currency depreciation ahead of actual inflation, they push up real interest rates. Higher real rates, in turn, act as drag on growth, especially when the private sector is also heavily indebted – as is the case in most western economies, not least the US.

This administration, unlike the last, shouldn't and can't afford to blithely believe that GDP will continue to grow at a pace constant with inflation. The fear of the Great Recession was real. The damaging spending that we've inflicted this past decade, along with the fear created by the recession has raised real interest rates and growth will probably be lower than expected.

We'll end with Mr. Fergusun who notes,

On reflection, it is appropriate that the fiscal crisis of the west has begun in Greece, the birthplace of western civilization. Soon it will cross the channel to Britain. But the key question is when that crisis will reach the last bastion of western power, on the other side of the Atlantic.

Dividing America

2010-02-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Geography? Been there, done that. Culture?That's what brought us the Civil War. Economics, yeah it's been done... Politics? We've heard the Red State Blue State spiel.

But how about a meta division?

Via Richard Florida we find a new way to divide America into 7 distinct regions based purely on the social networking of Facebook. From such exotic names as Socalistan to the more mundane Greater Texas Pete Werden has analyzed 210 million Public Facebook Profiles. From the habits of facebook users and mapping their connections we can learn about the folks. Per Werden:

Some of these clusters are intuitive, like the old south, but there's some surprises too, like Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas having closer ties to Texas than Georgia. To make sense of the patterns I'm seeing, I've marked and labeled the clusters, and added some notes about the properties they have in common.

Thus you get the map, and the descriptions of these clusters. From the available information it looks like a meta description that combines not only geographic and sociologic taxonomies but some freakanomics. Take for example "Dixie":

Probably the least surprising of the groupings, the Old South is known for its strong and shared culture, and the pattern of ties I see backs that up. Like Stayathomia, Dixie towns tend to have links mostly to other nearby cities rather than spanning the country. Atlanta is definitely the hub of the network, showing up in the top 5 list of almost every town in the region. Southern Florida is an exception to the cluster, with a lot of connections to the East Coast, presumably sun-seeking refugees.
God is almost always in the top spot on the fan pages, and for some reasonAshley shows up as a popular name here, but almost nowhere else in the country.

If it sounds familiar, it probably should -- this nearly neatly explains, and to my estimation definitely gives meat to why Nate Silver's formulae for vote predictions were so accurate. It's a fuller picture. Let's take a look at South Carolina from Fan Page Analytics:

Profile for South Carolina

Likes

o God
o Starbucks
o I need a vacati...
o Chick-fil-A
o Freeze Pops
o Dislike Button
o Michael Jackson
o Charleston, SC
o The Beach
o I believe in God

Names

o Michael
o Jennifer
o David
o Chris
o John
o Ashley
o Jessica
o James
o Amanda
o Lisa

and Columbia, SC?

Profile for Columbia, SC

Likes

o God
o Starbucks
o Chick-fil-A
o Michael Jackson
o Freeze Pops
o Dislike Button
o I need a vacati...
o Taraji P. Henson
o R.I.P Michael J...
o I believe in God

Names

o Michael
o Chris
o John
o Jennifer
o David
o Ashley
o Jessica
o James
o Amanda
o Jason

Oh those Muppets

2010-02-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

They were huge in the 80's. Big Bird's tribute to their creator at his funeral is possibly the saddest thing in modern popular culture, and now they're back with 'huge hits' (pun intended) on the interwebs.... er... webernets. All I can say is I sympathise with Beaker and keeping pace with technology.

Evangelical Leader: Quit Moralizing, focus on Discipleship

2010-02-10T07:04:00.000-05:00

An interesting and provocative article about Gay Marriage hit the Christian News Wire. Meet House Church Leader Ken Eastburn:

"Creating a moral America is not God’s goal nor should it be ours. Instead, the Bible is clear that our focus should be to make disciples and seek first the Kingdom of God."

But he doesn't stop there. He challenges the very modern, American, liberal Christian understanding of the Kingdom of God as something that can be created on terra firma as a Christianesque Utopia:

"It is a common mistake for Christians to spend time, energy and resources in advocating for a morality that is consistent with their faith," says Eastburn, "But at the end of the day our goal, the command given to us by Jesus Christ, is to make disciples. When our time and energy is spent on moralizing a secular nation, we are sacrificing our ability to obey Christ's command."

He continues with a very traditional argument which to our ears sounds out of place as well as Provocative:

"Many Christians have their faith intertwined with their nationality and, as a result, believe that their efforts to legislate a specifically Christian morality are glorifying to God. But just the opposite is true. No matter how good America becomes, people are still separated from God by sin. The only agenda we should be spending ourselves on is the redemption offered through Jesus Christ."

Very Interesting. You're not going to save or evangelize people through legislation, only through personal outreach.

That's why it's been so strange for marriage equality supporters to see laws, liberal laws that carve out HUGE exceptions for religious groups and persons of faith from participating in same sex unions, the bills still fall in the face of an unwarranted out cry from religious groups. How is it an infringement upon your religious liberty to say that you don't have to participate, support, or celebrate a same sex union? If the state takes a neutral position on homosexuality how does that impede on your ability or the strength of your message to convince people of your position?

A new twist in the Prop 8 trial

2010-02-09T07:32:00.000-05:00

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Judge Walker may be gay.

But before the religious right gets all up in arms, let's remember that Judge Walker is a libertarian conservative - many of his questions were smart and specific, and being a libertarian conservative he even asked why the government should be in the "marriage" business at all.

Above the Law tries to tease out any potential bias, but ultimately concludes that jurisprudentially Walker is above reproach, though after the ruling if it's confirmed that he's gay it'll be a public perception issue. To which I say certainly.

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus

2010-02-08T19:16:00.001-05:00

Within days of each other two prelates - one Catholic, one Anglican (CofE) release opposing statements on the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

First is Bishop Peter J Elliot, Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne Australia. He says of the Anglicans that ferry the Tiber that they will be "United in Communion but not absorbed." The other is the Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr. Peter Sentamu. As reported in the Telegraph, Dr. Sentamu told the BBC recently of these Anglicans that "they wouldn't be 'proper Catholics.'"

Other than guffaw from these shores, I'll leave it to Damian Thompson to take the good Archbishop of York to task for his spectacularly ignorant and offensive statements.

On this side of the pond the response to the apostolic constitution has been positive from the Roman Catholic perspective. After all it was in America that the precursor to the Ordinariate was established with the Anglican 'Use' parishes.

As far as reactions from the Episcopal Church - it's been pretty muted as that ecclessial community is still in upheaval internally. The national church is taking on individual clerics, congregations, and dioceses as they align with more conservative Anglican provinces.Interestingly while visiting Charleston, SC the former Bishop of Rochester, Pakistani born Michael Nazir-Ali, mused on Constitution that the Vatican has created a Presbyterian Ordinariate because "the Proposal offered no Bishops from the Roman Catholic Church for the fleeing Anglicans."

A little further upstream there's no word yet if the local Anglo Catholic church, Church of the Good Shepherd, is considering the Ordinariate with their spiritual, doctrinal, and liturgical closeness to the Catholic Church.

The Great (fire)Wall of China

2010-02-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

“The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization..."
- Karl Marx

Besides a cool quote by Karl Mark, Reason Magazine has an interesting article on how to utilize the WTO against the Chinese government to open them up, not to corporate interest (though that's a component), but to the virtues and vices of the freedom of speech. Their argument is based around the elements of the Treaty China signed to join the WTO:

When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 it agreed that foreign service companies would have the same access to markets in China as domestic companies do. Now the European Union and the U.S. Trade Representative office are considering an argument that the Great Firewall violates China’s obligations to permit free trade in services under its agreements with the WTO. Last year, in a working paper titled Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law, the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) think tank argued that “WTO member states are legally obliged to permit an unrestricted supply of cross border Internet services.”

The idea here is to use their recent spat with Google as grounds to file a complaint with the WTO. The argument goes that state censorship violates the free trade agreement as it interferes with the ability of the Internet giant and other web companies to provide a service to the Chinese people. The article goes on to explain that while a ruling in a hypothetical complaint with the WTO doesn't guarantee compliance that it does in turn allow for legal retribution in the forms of tariffs on Chinese products.

Their is hesitation by the American Trade Representative to pursue this option which is reflective of the Administration's delayed reaction earlier this year to the hacking of Google by Chinese government officials. Because of the extremely close interdependency of the Sino-American economies any negotiation with China must be labeled: fragile, handle with care.

Waldo Lydecker whacks Joe Taylor, FITSNews

2010-02-03T23:11:00.001-05:00

Waldo's got a great post up about how abysmally the current Commerce chief has performed at growing the SC economy, and has the most sound, and blunt, critique of this state's economic development strategies:

The fact remains, South Carolina is pursuing out of date strategies to attract companies that just want cheap workers to bolt things together. Screw the residents of the state: give BMW and Boeing land and tax breaks that will take decades to recover even as state services atrophy, look the other way when most of their workers are not real employees but contract workers (hello, BMW), and pray they don't pick up and leave when their factories are fully depreciated and they can get some other state to build them new ones.
Joe Taylor ought to resign in shame over the way he is willing to pimp the citizens of South Carolina. A 21st century economy is not one where your operating principle is to beg companies to come here on the promise you're willing to beggar your constituents' rights to access to redress when they are abused. In the new economy, workers' knowledge and ability to innovate is where the action lies. And they can, even under the Supreme Court's reactionary views, can go where they are most valued and life is most agreeable. Smart people don't migrate to low wage states.
In this century, companies that succeed- and stay- in SC are companies that can persuade their employees to want to live here and stay here. As long as South Carolina is perceived as a racist, reactionary, uniparty, head up its ass, homophobic, misogynist political/business culture, all you can be sure of is that the big, nameplate corporate recruits that enable politicos to declare victory and go home will stay here only as long as it suits them.

Both parties suffer from this mindset in South Carolina. The idea is, if we can bring in companies by throwing money, reforming tort and lowering taxes - then the expanded tax base will maintain the provided services. The fact is, until we invest in the necessary services in this state, educate our children properly, foster homegrown innovation then we'll be an attractive site for expansion, and relocation. We wouldn't have to throw as exorbitant incentives at out of state and international corporations. It'll take a whole lot of institutional reform for which the political will in South Carolina is completely non existent. Sure FITS News can harp about reform, and legislators may pay some election year lip service to it, but they know where their bread is buttered.

quiet ubiquity the final taboo

2010-02-03T19:50:00.000-05:00

I was a fan of the SyFy show Battle Star Gallactica - as many of my friends were. So when SyFy announced and premiered Caprica - the prequel to the BSG series, I was more than excited to watch. It comes on Friday nights at 9, and most Fridays I'm out and about on the town so I dvr it to watch on Saturday morning or afternoon. This past Friday's episode, which was the series premier after the extra long pilot the previous week, was great. But something caught my attention.

As the Tauron mafioso Sam Adama is walking his nephew through the Tauron ghetto of Caprica city - he very nonchalantly explains to young William, future Admiral Adama, about he and Williams father began their lives on Caprica after leaving Tauron. He explained how he was trying to "pick up" a guy and William's father "picked up" the guy's sister. The conversation continued with Sam talking about how he and William's father got involved with the Tauron mafia before he breaks some one's window for his boss.

For the characters - the fact that Sam Adama, mafioso, series bad ass, is gay is no issue at all. For me the fan watching it was a "did he just say what I thought he said" moment, and through the power of dvr, and rewinding, I realized he did.

This to me is a huge step in the evolution of gays in popular culture. In decades past we weren't acknowledged at all or shown in a negative light. Then we were the humorous, or witty occasional characters. In the 90's the gays burst out of the closet and onto the main screen, most likely because of the horrors of the AIDS crisis. (well we gotta talk about the Gays somehow -- they're dying in the street!).

But still, when gays weren't presented as victims of disease we were presented on screen as the flamboyant caricature of what people assume gays to be.

I recall the first time that I had seen the ubiquity of homosexuality addressed, which in a way nullifies the ubiquity. In the Simpsons episode from 1997, Homer's phobia. Homer's new gay friend proceeds to take him to places all over Springfield where gays are present. At first the folks seem like your average Joe, then a song and dance number breaks out. It was funny and won many plaudits from media organizations and gay advocacy groups alike for it's positive treatment of the gay community. At one time Homer proclaims:

You know me Marge, I like my beers cold, my TV loud, and homosexuals FLAAAMMING.

It was funny, but it again characterized, like the song and dance numbers, how the straight world wanted, needed, to identify and classify the gay community.

Now most major networks have regular gay characters. From Will & Grace on NBC to Brothers & Sisters and Modern Family on ABC to Glee on Fox, and various Soap Operas on all the major Networks. Each show portrays the character in one light or the other but they all share one thing - the gay character is obsessed with being gay, that's their focus, that's their point of existence, that's how the world sees them -- navel gazers. It's just another caricature.

Granted these stereotypes are based in reality. There are certain segments of the community that are flamboyant, there are segments that are obsessed with being gay, I think it's the evolution of the community as we try to assert both our existence and negotiate our matriculation into the culture and society at large. That's the point of marriage equality and efforts to repeal DADT - it's not for special treatment, it's for equal treatment. We're here, we're queer, and we just want to be left alone.

Perhaps more shows will go the route of Caprica - perhaps others already have, there's a lot of TV programming out there folks -and show gays neither as flamboyant caricatures or as the gay character, after all that's the direction that gay community is moving - acknowledged, accepted, integrated, quiet ubiquity.

Or perhaps Caprica will go the direction of the others, and Sam Adama will make a production of his sexuality - it's too early to tell, but there is promise.

Common Ground with the Rushbo

2010-02-01T17:51:00.000-05:00

During the Presidential campaign of '08 I discovered something about John McCain - he too is an ABBA fan. As it happens I have something in fan with Rushbo. It turns out Rush Limbaugh is also a fan of the Gaga. (See him dance to Poker Face!) Music really does offer a chance for finding common ground after all.

Or maybe it's just a Bad Romance.

Can hipsters be Conservatives?

2010-01-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

John Guardiano bemoans the temerity of the young "Hipster Cons" as he calls them at David Frum's site. It beggars the question, Can a hipster be a conservative? My answer is, yes.

I've written before about hipsters... it's my own personal obsession to which I've come to the conclusion I myself am one, though I bemoan the fact that I am one, which makes me even more of a hipster -- ooooh, how meta.

Back to the point. I've written before about Christian hipsters, whether they're Evangelical or Catholic, so it's safe to assume that the definition of hipster is not limited to the ironic youth of Brooklyn though there are certain schematas consistent with all class/degrees of hipsters.

Who Guardiano classifies as 'hipsters' is up for debate* - what he calls temerity, a term of derision, put neutrally or positively would best be described in hipster speak as a search for personal/collective authenticity.

To borrow from my posts on Christian hipsters and quote Rabbi Avi Weiss:

"people are looking for a dialectic, people are looking for a commitment that is grounded but not one that is stagnant. The other part of the dialectic is an openness but not without limits."

This is true for all hipsters.

*Conor Friedersdorf actually wrote a post at the American Scene questioning what a hipster is and if he could possibly be one. Take it from me: If you have to ask people if you are a hipster, you probably are a hipster.

Bring on the Trains?

2010-01-28T20:52:00.000-05:00

Today President Obama went with Vice President Biden to Tampa to announce an $8 billion dollar investment in Rail Infrastructure through the ARRA.

As many of you know, I love the idea of trains. I love how versatile, and efficient they are as an economic development engine as well as a mode for public transit. So you can imagine how happy I was to hear of the announcement today and the commitment by the President to funding the expansion of high speed rail by budgeting an additional $1 billion dollars every year for the next five years.

So what 31 States get a portion of the $8 billion dollar pie dolled out today? CNN said the approved projects are

San Diego-Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo in California
Oakland-Sacramento in California
Portland-Eugene in Oregon
Seattle-Portland in Washington and Oregon
Chicago-St. Louis in Illinois and Missouri
St. Louis-Kansas City in Missouri
Minneapolis/St. Paul-Madison in Minnesota and Wisconsin
Madison-Milwaukee in Wisconsin
Milwaukee-Chicago in Wisconsin and Illinois
Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati in Ohio
Detroit/Pontiac-Chicago in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois
Tampa-Orlando in Florida
Raleigh-Charlotte in North Carolina
Washington-Richmond in the District of Columbia and Virginia
Raleigh-Richmond in North Carolina and Virginia
New York City-Albany-Buffalo in New York
New York City-Montreal in New York and Quebec, Canada
Boston-New York-Washington in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia
Brunswick-Portland in Maine
Philadelphia-Harrisburg-Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania
Springfield-East Northfield in Massachusetts
New Haven-Springfield in Connecticut and Massachusetts

Noticeably absent from the list are any rail projects in South Carolina, although North Carolina has two projects funded as does.... CANADA??!?!?!??

But what about South Carolina? The Charlanta mega region is one of the largest growing economic geographies in the nation, and it includes the upstate of South Carolina! Two years ago I blogged about a little noticed article in The Spartanburg Herald Journal about an effort by SC Public Railways and the Department of Commerce to re evaluate the rail systems in South Carolina, so what was determined?

Well much like the little noticed article in the Herald Journal the produced report, by Wilbur Smith and Associates, received just as little fanfare... actually none, though it contains some golden nuggets for rail enthusiasts and those interested in -- you know economic development, and, oh, job creation.

The report itself is available online in seven parts here (filed under "R") I'll link to the Executive Summary at the bottom of the post. One of the more interesting points from the report on my first glance was

12.1.2 Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor
Route costs for the Upstate line are estimated in a report from U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center at $1.2 to $1.4 billion. Based on 80 percent federal funding and half of the route lying in South Carolina, the state’s share would be approximately $140 million.
12.1.3 Commuter Rail
Charleston has applied to the State Infrastructure Bank for $206 million for capital costs. An active investigation of service between Columbia and Camden is ongoing. Capital costs were estimated at $80 million in a prior study.

I threw the Commuter Rail bit in as a tease, the meat and potatoes is that estimate for the High Speed Rail Corridor. If Obama is budgeting $1 billion every year over the next 5 years, which of the SC Congressional Delegation is going to stand up for our economic interest and push for funding of this vital corridor. And even if they do - will anyone in the General Assembly respond in kind? Rail. Economic Development. Jobs.

SC State Rail Plan Executive Summary

SC Reality TV

2010-01-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

I'm not a huge fan of Adam Fogle, or his "Palmetto Scoop" never have been - never will be. But he does manage to get a decent story every now and then. Monday he reported that a reality TV show is probably looking to film in SC soon.

Apparently it's a new season of Oxygen's Bad Girls Club. All I have to say is -- has Joe Taylor heard about this? Per Fogle an ad on Craigslist is soliciting casting recruiters.

But if you want to see a reality show based in Columbia, SC you don't have to even turn on the TV -- just go to Drinking in the Morning where you'll see Aaron Johnson and Grant Robertson, owners of the F Stop in 5 points, doing truly unscripted programing. Seriously, hilarious stuff.

Speaking of Aaron and Grant they're running for Mayor and City Council respectively. What's really interesting is that Mr. Robertson has a fighting chance against incumbent Tamieka Isaac Devine. Devine has been hurt politically, as all incumbents have been, by revelations of the city's fiscal mismanagement and two personal financial scandals last year regarding improper loans through the Sumter Columbia Empowerment Zone.

POTD.... oh Hipsters

2010-01-28T18:38:00.001-05:00

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

At Bierkraft in Park Slope, Brooklyn, customers bring their own growlers and fill them with fresh draft beer. They drink it there, or take it out.

As always Waldo sums it up just right

2010-01-28T07:45:00.000-05:00

My old blog friend Waldo Lydecker summed up the oppositional response to last night's SOTU. In his acerbic, yet witty way - he managed to show exactly what's wrong with the Grand Old Party (emphasis on OLD).

SOTU '10

2010-01-27T23:43:00.000-05:00

In case you missed the SOTU, and how could you - you had the ability to stream it on your iPhone? - Ben Smith has the full text.

Andrew Sullivan has a round up of the salient SOTU Reax.

I watched it on Cable, and followed the twitter reactions.

Blog Tips for the Pope

2010-01-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

If you missed NPR's All Things Considered this evening, you missed a great segment about the Pope and Blogging "Give Us This Day Thy Daily Post." It was in response to last weeks previewed release of Benedict's address for World Day of Communications where the pontiff encouraged priests to blog and engage in New Media.

Interestingly enough plenty of priests have preemptively jumped on the New Media bandwagon and some of them have pretty large followings. You can find a [short] list of some of them at the bottom of the post.

The segment included two notable Catholic bloggers, interstingly enough one from a more 'conservative' camp and the other 'liberal;' The Anchoress (Elizabeth Scalia) of the magazine First Things and Fr. James Martin, SJ of the magazine America. Thankfully theological partisanship was put aside and it ended up being a pretty humorous bit, especially when Scalia suggested:

"He should have some favourite YouTube videos that he can just slap up there when he's feeling kind of tired. Like the parade scene from Ferris Beuller. Slap that up there and that's a days blogging."

But it wasn't just light hearted, Fr. Martin had a good point when it comes to blogging about comments and specifically commenters:

"I would say there are two kinds of angry people. There are angry people, and then there are religiously angry people. And the religiously angry people tend to be angrier than the angry people."

I know all about comments and commenters, but I still allow them, so bring it.

*** Some Catholic Priests who blog ***

Fr. Z
Fr. Longnecker (from Greenville, SC!)
Fr. Finnegan
Fr. James Martin, SJ (as well as other Priests at America Magazine)
Fr. Austin Flemming
Cardinal Sean O'Malley

Watching the SOTU? There's an App for that.

2010-01-27T20:25:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the tech trend that help catapult him to office, President Obama's white house released last week an app for iPhone and iTouch users. The White House even provided a nifty video featuring Press Secretary Robert Gibbs (you can watch it at the bottom of the post).

The release corresponds with the SOTU, and coincidentally with the release of the new Apple touch pad computer - the iPad (insert joke here). I'll leave it to the conspiracy theorists to divine the meaning, especially for the White House's relationship with Apple's main rival Google. When this administration began many questioned the cozy relationship between DC and Mountain View, but recently there was a small spat between the administration and google over America's hesitant reaction to Chinese hackers.

But I will say this - as a Droid user, where's my app. The President himself uses a blackberry still -- where's the app for that? I know that the iPhone is popular, but it's only 19% of the market share of smart phones and that figure should fall to about 10% in 2012. I won't complain too much -- google's versions of apps have always been web based - and at least the white house is planning on releasing a mobile web version of whitehouse.gov soon.

I'm baaaaacckk

2010-01-27T19:04:00.000-05:00

After nearly a year on blog hiatus, I've decided to return to the blogosphere, at this new address. This time I won't be blogging anonymously though I've retained my original pseudonym in the blogspot address and profile. Like before I'll be a bit all over the place topic wise, but hopefully will be a little more restrained in how and what I post. The object here is a little more reflection and a lot less reaction. That's not to say that I won't pen a screedal every now and then or resort to certain low brow humor, but.. I'll try and keep it to a minimum.

So why here - why not Leonardo's Notebook? It is all about new beginnings. If I had returned to the notebook there would have been certain stylistic and contextual expectations, and there would have been certain bloggy baggage. Not to say I want to place a distance between my work here and the notebook, but I want to try a different direction - one I feel I couldn't go with the notebook.

For now then we're going to move from key to quire and start the journey a new. Happy Blogging.

from key to quire

The Death of Beer?

The Republican Obama Effect

Sundays were meant for drinking

Cilantro Vodka

Jake Knotts, Nikki Haley and the peril of SC Politics

Synthetic Biology, Nanobots, oh my!

Nikki Haley and Will Folks' affair, another example of sex crazy SC Politics

Revitalizing Main Street, Innovista, and the perils of development

Angels, Nanobots, and pin heads

Jesus and Mo

conservative media, psuedo civil libertariansim and Kagan

The Rise of Liberaltarianism

Anti-Gay Activist, University of South Carolina Prof, caught with "Rent Boy" in Miami

QOTD: Genius

QOTD: Breetish political humor

Liberaltarians found

Election Day Open Thread, Columbia edition

Waldo whacks Boy Fogle... again

The Hipsters got a promotion

Indra Nooyi and PepsiCo charging forward

Foodstamps and foodies

justg [sic] watched my tax dollars pay for a month's food stamps worth of overpriced, organic junk food at EarthFare, ugh... the system is broken!

The LHC is off and running!

It's only the tip of the iceberg

Mr. Rainsford, a co-founder of the textile giant Delta Woodside Industries, is president of the Rainsford Development Corp. in Edgefield.

Colour me shocked.... SHOCKED!

Healthcare, Abortion, individual liberties, and going forward

QOTD: specious

Beyond Left and Right: Gays against marriage equality

Columbia wants Google Fiber (so does the rest of SC)

The FCC must have been watching the happenings in SC

Filling out the Census

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus, ctd. II

Spire Envy

Book Review: The Last Cato

A Pink Success!

Upcoming Birthday

On The Atlantic ReDesign

Seeing Red, feeling Blue? Vote Pink!

Sunday's were meant for eating good food

SC Book Festival

Insurance Carriers

The first week of Lent and Sushi

Quadragesima

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus, ctd.

They've bought enough rope

Dividing America

Profile for South Carolina

Friends

Likes

Names

Profile for Columbia, SC

Friends

Likes

Names

Oh those Muppets

Evangelical Leader: Quit Moralizing, focus on Discipleship

A new twist in the Prop 8 trial

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus

The Great (fire)Wall of China

Waldo Lydecker whacks Joe Taylor, FITSNews

quiet ubiquity the final taboo

Common Ground with the Rushbo

Can hipsters be Conservatives?

Bring on the Trains?

SC Reality TV

POTD.... oh Hipsters

As always Waldo sums it up just right

SOTU '10

Blog Tips for the Pope

Watching the SOTU? There's an App for that.

I'm baaaaacckk