“On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog,” goes Peter Steiner’s New Yorker cartoon. Now a whole new mangy race, attracted by the comfortable surroundings and flexible hours, compete with me for page views and visit their own Dogbook pages.
(From CNN) Wimsey the Jack Russell terrier hard at work on his blog, which owner Hope McPherson helped him start.
Perhaps the saddest thing about the Bush administration is how little Americans have come to expect of it. It has resulted in an orgy of incompetence that have seriously damaged first America’s image, and now our economy and very .
The current agony of more than 200,000 American Airlines passengers stranded on more than 2500 cancelled flights at America’s airports is just the latest example.
A competent administration would have kept the FAA on the case in the first place. A more foresighted administration would have recognized the cost to Americans and the economy of airlines like Aloha, ATA, Skybus and now Frontier failing. And a stronger administration would have acted in the crisis, like Truman did nationalizing the steel industry or, yes, Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers union as a “peril to national safety”.
“The buck stops here,” Truman said. By contrast, the Bush Administration has done nothing. Nothing. There has been an absolute leadership vacuum. And sadly, that has come to be what we expect from it. Consider:
And the media, distracted by its own evisceration, has done a piss-poor job of holding the administration accountable for its across-the-board failure of leadership.
The Consumer Electronics Association claims that only 15 million televisions will be ‘removed’ from the homes of people who get their TV signals over the air, and of those, 95% will be “sold, donated or recycled.”
But who would buy an analog television when what the CEA likes to call the “digital television transition,” (a process now approaching the length of the 100 Years War) is complete?
As for donations, tried to donate a monitor or computer lately? Many people end up doing nocturnal dumpster dumps in frustration. And the last thing charitable organizations want is a haul of unsellable obsolete televisions.
That leaves recycling. How it will be done isn’t so clear; Sony will take back their own aging TVs, but other owners are out of luck. While Erin Monaghan suggests making your TV into a planter or fish tank, you still need to get rid of the TV tube, which Earth 911 suggests can contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead.
I say bring back the halcyon days of Led Zeppelin at the LA Hyatt, the notorious “Riot House” on the Sunset Strip, and launch the old TVs from the balcony to an empty swimming pool.
Look out below!
Newspapers are now cutting off their proverbial noses to spite what remains of their face. Although every day brings more cuts, perhaps the most egregious in recent weeks was that of Village Voice dance critic Deborah Jowitt, who was fired but asked to continue to contribute as a freelancer–after 41 years as the Voice dance critic.
A paper like the Voice was built on its criticism (and support for) the arts, like dance, film, music, and theatre (the Voice will host its 53rd annual Obie awards for the best of off-Broadway this May.) To cut back on arts coverage can only damage their reputation and hurt the arts community as well.
Certainly, in this bleak environment some cuts are necessary. But others are foolish. Last year, for example, the LA Times dropped its Sunday television section. While one can get listings for the next few hours on TV or on line, its much harder to plan one’s viewing for the week, especially for those like my mother who don’t go online at all.
I’m feeling it personally as well. Right after I won an LA Press Club Award for this story, last June, the LA Times Magazine was cut back from a weekly to a monthly. It’s rare now to see a freelancer’s byline, as the Magazine has become a haven for LA Times staffers (also a fast-diminishing breed).
To add insult to injury, the Times magazine is now primarily about fashion and skin, two topics I know nothing about.