US Election, NaNaWriMo/Gaming, IT Issues

[tcpip]

The election of Obama was pretty convincing, although I would hope that American conservatives are beginning to understand why their electoral system needs preferential voting and proportional representation, in the same way that Canadian liberals are hopefully beginning to understand. Many are having problems (hat-tip to jhubert), to which schadenfreude pie is on offer. To many conservatives this was a "referendum on socialism" - which was lost. Whilst there is some socialist orientations in Obama, in the centre-left, European social-democratic model but more realistically one must avoid the twin errors of cynicism and overconfidence. It is also worth keeping on eye on what Bush will do in his remaining days of office.

My NaNaWriMo game-design project is going very well; so far I'm pushing 20,000 words which is reasonably good for the four days although I did have a fair amount of notes and material to draw upon. It is certainly easier to write about something that one already has an interest and background in without the strict requirements of veracity as I discovered in 2006 when I started a historical fiction novel. The greatest strength of the process is, of course, providing one a discipline habit of concentrated writing. On a related topic I have started bringing articles together for the next issue of RPG Review. One of the nice discoveries over the past few days is to find that I have been listed as a playtester for most recent edition Traveller; something I didn't know about! It would be good to get into some sf gaming, it's kind of a big glaring empty spot in the various genres I'm involved in at the moment. Blue Planet would be a nice choice, although I'm also fond of Traveller 2300/2300AD. Any others?

The past couple of weeks in IT has been very interesting. Minister Conroy must now realise that almost nobody supports his proposed clean feed (156 against, 1 for). Andrew Keen has established himself as a person who appears not to understand technology or economics; "Economy to Give Open-Source a Good Thumping". In enormously good news (hat-tip arjen_lentz), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has thrown out most software patents! Has your Internet feed been slow in the past 36 hours or so? Mine has at work and at home; that's because Sprint and Cogent are having a little dispute.

Comments

[charlycrash.livejournal.com]

I really wish that "socialism" would stop being used as an insult. I wonder if it'll ever get to the point where it's become almost entirely divorced from any kind of quantifiable political stance and is merely used as an insult, like "fascist". Everyone thinks they know what Fascism is, and almost nobody actually does.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* Certainly treating all ideologies as a "quantifiable political stance" (nice phrase!) is a sign of a more scholarly approach.. Certainly if in political debates we all start using such terms as a means towards providing understanding maybe it'll rub off.

[synabetic.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. Thank you.

[taavi.livejournal.com]

your "referendum on socialism" link (to me?) is broken.
Sure, we have to be pragmatic, realistic, recognise that Obama is human and the system is broken, etcetera, but just for a few days: WAHOOOO!!!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Fixed!

Yes, there is indeed cause for some celebration.

This stuck out for me:

If you are incapable of mustering pride in this moment, and if you cannot appreciate how meaningful this day is for millions of black folks who stood in lines for up to seven hours to vote, then your cynicism has become such an encumbrance as to render you all but useless to the liberation movement. Indeed, those who cannot appreciate what has just transpired are so eaten up with nihilistic rage and hopelessness that I cannot but think that they are a waste of carbon, and actively thieving oxygen that could be put to better use by others.

This election does indeed matter. No, it is not the same as victory against the forces of injustice, and yes, Obama is a heavily compromised candidate, and yes, we will have to work hard to hold him accountable. But it matters nonetheless that he, and not the bloodthirsty bomber McCain, or the Christo-fascist, Palin, managed to emerge victorious.

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

I admire the sentiment in the population,
but still believe they'r being played.

[msss.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no on Minister Conroy. He's unlikely to give a lot of weight to comments on a particular website. If we are going to stop this, we need everyone to write to him. And Rudd. And Gillard. And Barnaby Joyce and Steve Fielding and so on. We need to point out all the ways that this is bad for their particular constituency, whatever that maybe - small business, families, etc.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely. He's mostly motivated by power politics which, in a sense, makes him incredibly easy to manipulate. The more people who tell him rather bluntly that this will cost more politically than it will gain, the greater the probability it will be sunk.

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I am surprised at how many of the people writing those conservative posts, and the comments to them, had abortion as their number one election issue.

Also, this: "We’re a hardy people and know about survival more than those Euro worms." (in the comments to one post) - Uh....

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

As Habermas once said rather dryly to some American critics (paraphrase); "You've has some two hundred years of a constitutional republicanism. Some of us haven't had that luxury."

[xsophiax.livejournal.com]

This will be relevant to your interests and excellent background music, then, especially if you like pretentious power metal!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

THAT'S AWESOME!!!

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

I never really liked Traveller 2300, but I think my favorite was MegaTraveller, and to a lesser extent the original, modified by the additional books that were published later.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* I prefer MegaTraveller rules-wise and ran a short campaign last year. I prefer the Trav2300 setting however.

Hmmm.... Traveller 2300 using MegaTraveller rules... Now that might just work..

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking to the sulks. I laughed so hard at this line that I nearly hurt myself:

"Real intellectuals are skeptical and look for evidence before they embrace an idea; global warming, like the rest of the dogmas of the extreme Left, are believed without proof, by faith alone."

What makes that so funny is that it came from Orson Scott Card!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There's some real pearls there, no doubt...

Orson Scott Card's credibility took a serious nosedive with his articles against any sort of civil union that wasn't one man/one woman. Those comments on global warming have a similar level of scholarship.

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Card really lost me when I read an article I'm sure was his, about how people who voted for Bush in 2004 were voting with their hearts, their guts, and shame on anyone who could hate them for it. I think there was the implication that people who care about gay rights, liberation, equality, must therefore be appealing only to talking points and rhetoric but not their hearts, because surely nobody in their right mind cares about people who are different than themselves. The recent Republican experience is surely a matter of people following what they feel is right, and their feelings can't be wrong.

People recommended his novels to me, but I think I'm put off items of his which might actually be written well, which is too bad.

[darkstardeity.livejournal.com]

Some of Card's novels seemed to me to be fairly progressive, which made it all the more surprising when I read some of his personal rantings. Which are reactionary and hate-filled. It makes me wonder whether or not some of his best works were actually written by him - or indeed, if he's even read them!

I find it ironic that he goes on and on about how precious his disabled son is, that everyone should respect and accept him just the way he is because "that's the way god made him", and then he can turn around (sometimes in the same essay) and spew bile on other people's "different" sons and daughters who happen to be gay. What happened to "that's the way god made them"? He seems to be oblivious to the fact that once upon a time his child would have been reviled, marginalised, even killed, and that he and his wife would have come under grave suspicion of moral failing for having produced such a child. Just as he is doing to gays and their families today.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Heh. I knew someone who wouldn't listen to Rachmaninoff on account of him being a Russian emigre from a privileged background. I suspect they were unaware that he was once part of a liberal-left group that supported freedom of expression in the arts.

This however is different. Card, from all accounts, is no Rachmaninoff. There are plenty of other, far better, science fiction writers to choose from.

I hope you like Rachmaninoff

[bar-barra.livejournal.com]

There is a concert coming up of the Vespers, sung by Gloriana, many of whom are friends of mine. I can't go (30th Nov) because I am doing Wedding Singer impressions, but it will be great. Blagosloviye, Gospodzi!

Re: I hope you like Rachmaninoff

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* I like Rachmaninoff.

[ironed_orchid]

Andrew Keen appears not to no anything about open source at all.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Or know anything about it :)

It's incredible that he was given space to spout something so poorly informed.

And not for the first time.

I'm going to have to dedicate another few hundred words to my PhD on this...

Personally, I don't know ANYBODY who believes in Socialism

[bar-barra.livejournal.com]

But I can't see what that has to do with The Democracy the US just had! Yeah, I have read that he's the love-child of Giant Man-Eating Avocadoes from the Planet Moonroth. Some of the folks who belong to what are usually called Right-Wing Think-Tanks to which I also belong are all hot and bothered, but most of us on the more Tory side of the House are pretty relaxed. One of our brighter members went to the US early this year, had a squiz and reported back words to the effect of Nothing To Get Hung Up About.

Let's put this into perspective here. Most of us right-wing fascist types (well, actually NO!!! but we're so used to it now so what the hell?) agree pretty much nem con that what we are advised is called the US Health System is an utter disaster. And would be introduced here over our insensate corpses. Could Mr O give them universal health care a la Oz? About as likely as seeing him go cross-country skiing on the Sun. And even if he could pull it off I for one would applaud, because it would be a damn sight better than the formation catastrophe they currently have.

All I would say about Team Red's acceptance of defeat is this. The Incumbent and The Challenger were both gracious and dignified. They would have been massively impressed, as were we all, by Mr O's rhetoric which was, in its better moments, rather self-consciously reminiscent of that well-known pinko Abraham Lincoln. If some shrill bystanders were less than gracious (and they were), all we can say is Look, Team Blue's cheer squad were REALLY less than gracious the last time round!

Senator C: oh dear. We never really know, of course. But there are only 2 options here. Option A is that this is a deliberate piece of cold-blooded cynicism strongly reminiscent of The Last Mob, where of course we know it won't work! We're just pandering, or pretending to pander, to the family values bandwagon. Option B is yes I really am so stupid that I don't know what I'm doing and if I were honest with myself I would hand myself in to the nearest police station.

My money, I fear, is on Option A.

Re: Personally, I don't know ANYBODY who believes in Socialism

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

No socialists? Oh, there's a few at socialists :)

Yeah some of the Obama conspiracy theories did get seriously kooky. From claims he was using mass hypnosis, to suggestions he was secretly Malcolm X's love child to various religious nutters saying he was the antichrist.

Oh dear, what a strange world...

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

Someone should ask that Keen fella:
Did the number of backyard vegie patches
increase or decrease during the last depression?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure he's never grown one.

[forwrathandruin.livejournal.com]

Ever informative and interesting. I look forward to your posts and have been meaning to tell you so.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'll try to keep to an interesting and informative standard!

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Well, the appointment of a part-time Israeli as chief of staff is just the first disappointment.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* He is a conservative choice politically and a neoliberal choice economically. Although The Atlantic does give reasons for optimism for his role in the peace process.