Dave Winer: Constitutional Scholar
To me blogging is not just protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, it is also an instance of the Second, the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
Dave Winer: Constitutional Scholar
April 14, 2007 – 8:03 am
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You think liberal blogs are over the top? Color me unimpressed.
July 15, 2006 – 5:58 pm
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I’m actively looking for liberal blogs that take a different tone than the ones I currently read. Anger and frustration, justified though it may be, still is of limited usefulness. Emotional writing may spur me to action, but I rarely feel more than riled up after reading a dozen posts on the outrages du jour. I’m convinced, okay? Now I’m ready to take action. But if I am to carry any arguments from the blogosphere to the real world, how exactly should I construct a cogent conversation with only emotion? Who gives me the building blocks of rational argument that I need if I want to change hearts and minds? Among the blogs I’ve chosen to read until now, I have found damn few who can do that.
That said, I find nothing I read on these blogs as divisive or cartoonishly over-the-top as continually emanates from the conservative noise machine. Jamison Foser’s post today on Media Matters is right on:
Media Matters – “Media Matters”; by Jamison Foser:As recently as July 12, Ann Coulter suggested that staff members of the New York Times be prosecuted for treason. And on July 14, she repeated her criticism of the 9/11 widows, whom she has accused of “enjoying their husbands’ deaths”. How is it that Coulter is not shunned from the public forum. How is it that she is not rebuked by conservative and liberal alike? And she’s only one example. Other conservative pundits are allowed to spew hateful, outrageous speech without question or criticism.
Media pounce on “screeching,” “frothing [liberal] bloggers”—while waving on conservatives who advocate … murder
I don’t think I want to hear anything else about “crazy liberal bloggers.”
50,000 Monkeys Blogging… Plus One
January 23, 2006 – 12:39 am
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It is only appropriate that my first post should be in support of my friend Lloyd’s new experiment. 50,000 Monkeys Blogging is a smart, funny, radical idea: turn the blog keys over to anyone who wants them. Open the house and let the riff-raff in. Bring on the spammers, Nigerian scammers, Propecia pushers, and anyone else who wants to get their blog on and let them have their say.
That means you, too, dear reader. You send an email to 50000monkeys@thecoolkids.us, wait a few minutes, and the contents of your email will show up as a post on the blog. Send anything you like: quips, quotes, confessions, rants, raves, obsessions… anything. It’s all anonymous, totally legal, and strangely satisfying.
Those ever-industrious spammers have already found the email address (how do they do it?). What I find interesting is that, rather than being annoyed by the spam, the act of reading random (albeit intentional) human-generated posts in between random spam email makes for a completely dada artistic experience (yes, in a good way). Drawing connections between the posts is a pleasing way to engage in creating order out of chaos. It’s silly and mad and meaningful. And what else would you expect from the man who has photographed every cup of coffee he’s drunk for the past year?
Lloyd lit the fire under my bottom to get this blog project going. Lloyd inspires me. That’s his job. In 2006, we accomplish that which is hard. For me, this blog is the first step.
Postscript: Apparently, a fellow who refers to himself as “The Famous Brett Watson” has done a statistical analysis of the probability that a million monkeys banging away at a million typewriters could eventually produce the script of Hamlet, and he’s posted it online. Ain’t the internet wonderful?
