Video of the Day: Agony of Defeat

The picture core I use for my self-made demotivator of the 2004 Election is of the iconic "agony of defeat" ski-jump crash of hapless Yugo/Slovenian skier Vinko Bogataj.

I looked a for a few minutes, right now, on google images and elsewhere for a better quality photo of the Vinksters crash, but couldn't find any. I did come across this awesome wikiness though:

The melodramatic introduction [of Wide World of Sports] became a national catch phrase that is often heard to this day. While "the thrill of victory" had several symbols over the decades, ski jumper Vinko Bogataj, whose dreadful misjump and crash of March 21, 1970 was featured from the early 1970s onward under the words "...and the agony of defeat", became a hard-luck hero of sorts, and an affectionate icon for stunning failure. ....

Bogataj's mishap is also commemorated in Rich Hall's book Sniglets as "agonosis," which is defined as "The syndrome of tuning in on Wide World of Sports every weekend just to watch the skier rack himself."

Yes. Yes I had agonosis for years and was only diagnosed a few minutes ago! But Youtube has cured all of we agonosis suffers, and those with similar afflictions, which is why we can say we live in a glorious agem - freed from television's cruel schedule. (Note, I may have to make a better 'tube):

Pain of Living the Past

As you've noticed, I'm going through a lot of backposts, and while much have to deal with the 2008 election, I'm also fixing up the earlyblog which takes me back to 2004. Oh boy, if you're finding yourself not hating Bush as much as you used to, go back and read newspapers from 2004-2005. That'll get you hating again.

Updated Labels: Shunned, Nut

Back at the beginning of the year, I worked on the epistemological task of updating my blog-labels. One change was to add titles to politicians, e.g. instead of plain old Bill Clinton, he became Citizen Bill Clinton. I explained the change thusly:

Herr is a title for evil politicians (and the appropriate gender specifics, e.g. Herr Cheney, Frau Coulter);

Citizen for good guys (for the most part; I'm being generous by including Krugman here);

Comrade for bad leftists (e.g. Ralph Nader).

Since that time, early January, I've added a few more categories:

1. "The Nut" = This applies to people I used to align with but who have since either gone completely crazy or whose previously existing crazy has shown to be no longer useful. This applies to my bygone favorite politician Joseph Lieberman who has transformed himself into a monster, and Martin Peretz (editor of The New Republic) who has always been crazy but while it was useful during the Bush Years and the two Israeli Wars of 2006-2008, his anti-anti-Zionism has gotten too shrill and unhinged to be useful.
   
   
2. "The Shunned" = This applies to people/politicians who's early promise was destroyed by subsequent immorality and/or incompetence. This applies to John Edwards and Ehud Olmert. Edwards had such promise but it turned out that his tacky lack of judgement was deeper than I could have imagined. And Olmert, oy, whose talent as a consummate political strategist and in-fighter was unbalanced by his utter inability to lead a nation, resulting in thousands of innocent deaths.
   
   
3. Miscellaneous additional titles = Extremely crazy or evil right-wingers get added fascist titles, e.g. "Mayorissimo Herr Rudolf Giuliani" or adding a "von" to the middle of the name "Herr Ronald von Reagan"
   
   
4. Borderline cases = Despite my grand disappointment with Paul Krugman, I've given him a "Citizen" title; Hillary Clinton, once she joined the Obama admininstration earned her a "Citizen" title as well. But these can be lost.

For the special cases of Hillary and Lieberman, I will explain more of my thinking anon.

Maintenance and Labels, Part 1

I've been spending time fixing the formatting of early posts as well as updating and tightening the labels. I'll provide below a key to what certain labels mean. Note, I haven't included the self-evident ones (American Politics), or those that deal with specific events that can be understood by looking at the content (attorney scandal); the following are the idiosyncratic 'codes' that I choose to organize abstract themes:

• Personal Titles (Herr, Citizen, Comrade) = Herr is a title for evil politicians (and the appropriate gender specifics, e.g. Herr Cheney, Frau Coulter); Citizen for good guys (for the most part; I'm being generous by including Krugman here); Comrade for bad leftists (e.g. Ralph Nader).
  
  
• humor/comedy = a distinction I make but a blurry one nonetheless... 'humor' is something funny and 'comedy' is the category of things that are humorous, e.g. a joke is humor but analyzing jokes is comedy (or the profession of humor is 'comedy'). Sadly, these definitions are subject to change.
  
  
• ethics/morality = another blurry distinction, but following the same pattern as humor/comedy; 'ethics' are the rules of good behavior and the general hierarchy of value, 'morality' the study of and/or the application of those rules. This definition is also subject to change.
  
  
• Shotgunning Puppies = a reference to a particular type of Right Wing evil, where it's not enough to refuse aid to the unfortunate, but one must hurt them as well. This is particularly true for downright evildoers like Karl Rove & Dick Cheney
  
  
• Monkeys in clown suits = sometimes I'm referring to literal monkeys in literal suits, but other times it references the lowest form of fool.
  
  
• Bellyaching = my whining (or 'whinging' as the Brits call it, for no discernible reason)

Pic from here. Backpost finally put up on 2009-12-17.

Tags; Misanthropic Entertainment

When Blogger first introduced 'tags' I went nuts and started labeling posts with single-use tags. I thought it was fun. Even though I was only 3 years younger than I currently am, I am embarrassed by my doofusness (doofosity?). Making one use labels was cutesy for the writer (me) but not for a reader. Especially since each blog on Blogger(tm) has a search window in the upper-left corner that allows the reader to search for odd phrases, rendering such single-use tags as unnecessary clutter.

One reason I'm back in grad-school, and in the social sciences, is because I'm a deep lexicographer at heart. I instinctively divide and analyze experience and knowledge into categories. I do it as part of how I understand the world but also to teach others how to understand the world.

The blogger-tags are like subject headings in a library. And I need to treat them as such. So I clearing them up; cleaning up single-use tags and introducing big categories. There were some before (e.g. "Our Broken Press") but now I'm trying to make that the norm.

An example is the last two posts which are part of a new category: misanthropic entertainment. Even though this post contains those words, the topic isn't about that subject... a lexicographic nightmare.

"I Am Aware of All Internet Traditions"

Because I am still logy from a 48-hour deadline push, I am easily suckered into peer-pressure, internet-style. John Cole claims that "This may be the greatest thread in the history of the intertrons."

Why? Because some doofus didn't understand what the blogger was saying, expressed his confusion and when he was corrected refused to accept the reprimand. In so doing, he defended himself from any criticism by claiming the now immortal phrase "I Am Aware of All Internet Traditions."

At least at Balloon-Juice that phrase will live long.

Obama Spell-Check Watch

A letter I just sent to Andrew Sullivan:

Dear Andrew,

I blog on blogger and it has annoyed me that "Obama" is still considered an incorrect word according to their spellchecker. Of these four names, only Obama's is highlighted in red: "Obama Clinton Giuliani McCain" Note, the correct word proffered for Obama is not Osama (which is actually also highlighted in red) but "ABM." Osama gets "Asama" for some reason. Asama is a mountain in Japan according to the Wiki .

Anyway, maybe we can start a petition to get the spellchecker updated. The man's the nominee (and next president!).

Thanks for all your work,
JC

Let's see if Sullivan quotes me and how long it takes from his quote til it gets done.

Information Saving the World

As loath as I am to use a New York Times story as proof, this one does prove what I said earlier about the information revolution, and what the implications are.

Times, Free at Last (Again)

TimesSelect, the grasping boneheaded grabasstic NYTimes ploy to charge for parts of their website, has died a deserved death. The bone of the boneheadocity was the concept that people would find the Times columnists and archives so valuable, that they would pay a premium to read their golden words. Except, uh, they may be good but not nearly as good as the FREE stuff we get online.

The online world is free and evolving (for now) and in the two years since NYT locked themselves behind a Dickensian wall of greed, Wikipedia and Youtube exploded and took control of news and information. Now, two years later, the Times needed to drop their scrooging because they were being left way behind.

As proof for my analysis, I just noticed on the online 'front page' of the Times that they are introducing a blog for my man, Paul Krugman. Considering that I get most of my online news and analysis from the incredible blogs on the Atlantic, Harpers, and from independents like TPM and Michael Totten, I'm glad the Times is starting off right.

Am I a Jewish Blog?

I wonder why I spend more time about regular subjects than Jewish ones. Israel don't count.

Meaning that there are developments in the Jewish world that I don't track and don't comment on. It could be from the paradox of a rabbi-blogger - that I have a non-anonymous pulpit wherein to talk about Jewish Stuff and I use my anonymous blog to cover the rest of my interests.

Or it could be that since a blog is available to the world, I don't want to air dirty laundry.

Sadly it could be because I'm not that much part of a hermetic Jewish community (like Brooklyn, Teaneck, Riverdale) and considering my wife's profession (college professor) there's a good chance for that situation to continue. As it is, topics like "proper behavior in summer bungalow colonies" is not part of my experience or interest.

Backpost finished 8/21/07, started 4/18/07. I had the first two sentences.

After Two Months, He Used My Quote

Andrew Sullivan will frequently post a 'quote of the day' (or two). On Oct 22, 2006 I sent him this email:

Dear Andrew,

Naturally, as a classically trained, ivy educated, doctoral level pseudo academic, I frequently read quote books as a substitute for real books. I recently acquired "The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations" ed. Robert Andrews (London, 2001) [ISBN 0-14-051443-0] at a used book store. On page 240, there is this gem:

"Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world's policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world's midwife to democracy when the birth is scheduled to take place under conditions of guerrilla war."

By? Jeane Kirkpatrick, in "Dictatorship and Double Standards" (Commentary magazine, November 1979).

And if that's not enough, later on the same page, from a fellow K quotable:

"The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions." - Henry Kissinger, from the "Guardian" 16 December 1992. According to the editors, the context was "Arguing against a role for the USA as 'world policeman.'"

Thought you would like such grist for your mill.

All the best,
[The Styx]

So today, I see this post: Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: Quote for the Day II:

'Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world's policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world's midwife to democracy when the birth is scheduled to take place under conditions of guerrilla war,' - Jeane Kirkpatrick. Commentary, 1979."

It's nice to be able to make some contribution.

Concern Troll - Part 3

A sociological analysis of why the "netroots" hate bothers me (and many, uh, normal people). I think it's because when I meet a jerk in real life, I walk away resolving to avoid that person in the future. What makes the Netroots Hatred so difficult is that not only is it difficult to avoid on many of the best websites but it is compounded by the privacy/intimacy/anonymity that makes the internet so attractive.

People spend hours online because its the quintessence, so far, of the Information Age (the final step will be 3-D cerebral hologramophonic nanochips - though at that point evolution will stop). Online one can be anonymous, alone yet surrounded by information, commerce, schmutz, and completely controlled personal interactions.

However, on the Netroot Hate Blogs the bubble of protection is swiftly jackbooted by these cranked up adolescents. It's jarring.

The sad thing is that they think they are being effective. They will get squashed - badly - just like they were in 1972.

Concern Troll - Part 2

I found out that the term was invented by (who woulda thunkit) the DailyKos. They are such wonderful people there.

This website explains the term:

"Concern Troll (n): One who professes complete faith in the progressive cause, who deliberately works to destroy it by claiming falsely that our displays of courage and strength are actually a weakness."

Oh, I get it. Har.

Infantile bullying = 'courage' and 'strength'

As usual, and sadly enough, I have stumbled upon the problem's keystone - the "netroots" is being fuelled by the notion that self-inflicted wounds are 'strong' and temper-tantrums are 'courage'

Rant: The Evil, Blogs

Why do people hate blogs? I hear this from people and it's in the same tone people used to have back in the 80s when they talked about answering machines. While I don't feel old, I realize that because I grew up in the transition time between in the years between when virtually all phones were corded (and many rotary! glad that died a swift death), and when people reacted strongly to leaving a message on an impersonal machine.

As I've mentioned before, while we don't have our flying cars in the 21th Century (yet), we have made enormous mind-boggling futuristic advances in communication and computing technology. But no flying cars. I'm actually happier to have my palm tero - wireless phone/Internet/color computer - which is probably more powerful than the system that launched the Apollo missions.

Anyway, this was supposed to be about blogs. Right, OK. So, people hate blogs. Who hates? So far the resistance has come from two groups:

1. Politicians and Old Media Employees
   
2. Old People (anyone above 60)

The latter group hates blogs for the same reason they hated answering machines. They have no idea what blogs are, so let's hate it! It's a stupid word to begin with (any decent word that starts with the B-L diphthong? Colors don't count). And it's a synecdoche for everything bad in new technology. And because info-technology is evolving very very fast, there's a lot to feel uncomfortable about. A blog is seen as just a way to waste time on the tube-ridden internet, and bloggers are the punk ruffians who have made the internets - and by extension the outside world outside of Archie Bunker's living room - a bad place.

We can ignore this group. They will soon pass into irrelevancy.

It's the first group - Politicians and Old Media Employees - who actually know (a bit) what blogs are, and don't like 'em. Back in 2006 my comments on this matter would have been prescient and interesting. Now, they're just a post-mortem. Because in the past 18 months, The Man has gone from fear to acceptance on blogs. They use 'em (badly, usually) and have gotten to understand that blogs are the newest incarnation of the technology tidal wave.

Sadly, this has led to many blaming blogs for early deaths - an epidemic, like Satanism in the 70s and comic-book-fuelled-child-delinquency in the 50s - without recognizing that blogging is no different from the 24/7 news stations. Except that CNN/FOX et al. have stopped doing actual news and have gone to entertainment while blogs have the chance to be the real 24/7 news that TV can't manage. Because TV costs a lot, requires made-up bimbos to read cue-cards, and is seen as a medium of entertainment and not information.

If anything, I hope blogs will finally kill off 24 hour news stations. Everything started going downhill (culminating with Chris Matthews) when news was perceived as 'profitable.' Viva la blog.

Backpost finished 4/11/08. I had just the first line (bolded). I've expanded it... all over the place. That's why it's now a 'rant.' And as far as I know, I've said much of this before as well.

Color Coding

Because I alternate between serious issues (Israel, American Politics, kid posts) and Absurd Trivialities (movies, humor), I find myself censoring possible posts for stealing the thunder of more cogent articles.

One idea to alleviate this tension is to create multiple blogs for each topic (which I have done, back in 2003, between this Styx and my Torah website) But that may be unwieldy.

Another idea is to color-code the posts, to identify when I am being serious or absurdly trivial.

The experimental colors are:

ISRAEL
JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES
AMERICAN POLITICS
MY KID
ABSURD TRIVIALITY
TRIVIAL ABSURDITY

Old Blog?

My original blog (Life in the Styx: The Prequel) is still out there in bloggyland. Not sure what to do with the old posts. I'm thinking of a slow, methodical transfer of the archives and 'drafts.' As such, if older posts seem to pop up in this blog, you're forewarned, that when the Deja tolls, it tolls for Vu.

Am I Back?

I hope I'm back. Don't tell everyone, just in case this bursts early.

But I miss the writing.

The reason why this went on a year hiatus is 'cuz:

1. blogger.com was causing me much agita and
   
2. people were reading the Blog and nagging me in two ways:


1. asking why I had time to write a blog when I hadn't responded to their self-absorbed desires, or
   
2. how could I say such things when my public persona is a carefully produced shell that combines equal parts Chofetz Chaim and Abraham Lincoln - and neither of them would say such nasty things about nice people.

Anyway, if you out there get the urge to ask either of those questions, I request that, like the Chofetz Chaim, you reign in your yappers.

As it is, blogging for The Styx is the reverse of the most common model. People often blog to create a voice for their otherwise anonymity. As a public (type) figure, I have both a name and a literal pulpit, so I use blogging as an opportunity to be faceless and muted.

When you live in a fishbowl, there's an advantage to being able to shout into a void.

Does this Work

Oh, I know its been a while, but I am hoping the fakaktiness of Blogger has been ironed out in my absence.

{2009 Update: Wow, a full year absence.}

Technical Bad Craziness

A reader, President Ed, has recommended a wacky fix to my Blogger problem - to create a second blog, rename the older blog "archive" and then name the second blog "the styx" again. If it doesn't work, I've lost everything. But frustration is the mother of desperation! And desperation is heightened necessity and you can just take it from there.

Roto-Blogger (Bloggo-Rooter)

While it may look like I've been only sporatically bloggin', I've actually been writing a lot in draft form. I will try to unclog the bottleneck and get those old posts out into the light.