The Ink-Pot and the Palette

The Atlantic today published a very good short essay on the NSA data collection issue: Why Should We Even Care If the Government Is Collecting Our Data?.

There is a comparison of metaphors: the Orwellian 1984 image of constant surveillance inhibiting behavior, and the Kafkaesque The Trial concept of an inscrutable government doing inscrutable things for hidden reasons. The author argues that the latter is far more appropriate for the current disclosures about the NSA.

Her conclusion, which I think is excellent:

...we should ease off the privacy hand-wringing and turn our attention to something much more fundamental: how we relate as citizens to our government and how much power we have in that relationship.

I read somewhere that Megaupload accounted for 4% of ALL THE TRAFFIC ON THE INTERNET, which is an incredible amount of traffic. The odds against the FBI singling any one individual out for an occasional one-off download, among 4% of the whole internet's traffic, must be astronomical.

Still, one would be kind of crazy to continue the practice. It's no longer feeling vaguely daring, or comfortably familiar. It feels like high-risk behavior, and I'm notoriously risk-averse.

Besides, speaking for myself, I can't say that most of the TV content I've consumed (ever) has enriched me very much in its own right. It's my fannish interactions with the content--fic, chatwatches, reviews, comments, conversations--that add value to my life.

I would miss that, and I wonder what might come along to replace it.

( But! But! - rant ensues... )

I took a break from my job-about-which-the-worst-I-can-say-is-that-it's-stressful, and went across the street to check out #OccupyPortland.



( OccupyPortland )

I know there's something wrong with this, but I'm having trouble articulating exactly what it is, so I'm hoping some of the more savvy in my circle can help me figure it out, 'cause it's bugging me.

The full story is here--mostly in the comments.

The summary is this: in a move that gives provides medical and scientific backing, the Centers for Disease Control have declared their support for the Department of Transportation's recent and controversial "active transportation" initiative, which puts biking, walking, and mass transit on an equal footing with cars and highways in its planning efforts. The CDC's reason for supporting it is that walking and biking as transportation would be a good way for a lot of Americans to be more active, and that more activity would be better for Americans' overall health.

I'm fine with that part. Excited, even. It's good news for American cycling.

Then come the comments. "Jackattak" (a regular on that blog) at number 2 says: "Here's a good idea: Get your fat ass out of your car and get a bike, walk, jog, or skateboard to work" and goes on to bemoan his mother's morbid obesity (including her height, weight and age).

This bothered me, so I commented back requesting an end to that kind of name-calling, and said that active transportation wasn't magically going to solve the nation's obesity epidemic. I cited my own cycling and my own wide posterior in evidence, and I think I was groping towards pointing out the fallacy of his broad brushstrokes, but I don't think I got there and I wasn't really clear on what I wanted to say.

He posted back giving me (I'm pretty sure) permission to accept myself under certain circumstances. I, uh, may have thanked him for this with a wee bit of sarcasm.

Now I feel all inarticulate and icky. I know that I'm sick and tired of the "fat ass":"lazy" equation (stated or implied), I know I don't like being reduced to a single physical characteristic, and I'm sure that I've had it up to here with the bootstrap philosophy of the privileged. But I need a better set of answers, a clearer conclusion--if only just to repeat in my own mind.

I'm not going back into the fray or anything, and I don't want to score points off the guy, but I'd LOVE some clarification.

If anyone interested in these fat-related, privilege-related types of issues would care to read the comments (they're pretty short) and help me think this through, I'd be very grateful.

You know how your boss is someone who has a lot of power over you? Bear that in mind as you read on.

Today Google rolled out the exciting new BikeThere addition to GoogleMaps. I was having a look at it this morning when my boss wandered up.

"What's got you smiling?" he asks.. I show him the map because he's kind of a geek and I figure he'll appreciate another cool Google development.

( My mistake. )

Yay, work.

What is it about a person on a bike that gets so many people's back up?

I ran into an old friend at lunch. She asked "What's new with you?" so I told her about riding Clyde, and the first thing out of her mouth after that was, "Oh God! Are you all political about it now?"

A certain amount of (relatively mild) anti-bike sentiment ensued, but she soon enough introduced a civil change of subject.

Before I started riding a bike, I didn't love bikes. (I still don't--I just love Clyde. :D) I didn't think bike commuting was possible for me, and the people who did it seemed to be from a different, more physically-privileged species.

Driving behind cyclists made me nervous, and I felt alienated from the predominantly young, predominantly male bike culture. Bike-riders were, in short, annoying. But not in a Dr Thompson kind of way.

My old friend was just unthinkingly giving voice to that annoyance and alienation. I get that. But her views are along an unbroken continuum at the far end of which is a surprisingly popular notion that bike-riders deserve injury or death for a lack of "respect for motorists" (read the comments on that LA Times Blog post if you doubt me).

I just...I see it--with depressing frequency--but I don't understand it, you know?

I really like the mayor of Portland. I wish the pearl-clutchers would quit trying to recall him.

Sam Adams, my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss, has survived a really nasty recall effort of the Clinton Impeachment variety (no links, no love, no energy, but if you're curious, it's out there), and has never once wavered in his public face as a hardworking, progressive, and effective mayor.

He's also fun, funny, and hip. And he rides a bike.

( No clue if he likes green eggs and ham. )

One of my favorite recent Sam Tweets:

Congrats to Houston Mayor-Elect Annise Parker, now US's largest city openly gay Mayor; from the US's 2nd largest city openly gay mayor.
9:43 PM Dec 12th from TweetDeck

Thank you, decemberlead, for pointing me to this cool little video encouraging President and Mrs. Obama to plant a food garden on the White House grounds.



And if the embed doesn't work, the video is here.

This is beautiful.

Art work and words about Inauguration Day, Washington, and America. Brought tears to my eyes. Especially the helicopter.

Barack Obama spoke in Portland today after receiving the endorsement of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in a surprisingly thrilling speech before a packed house at Memorial Coliseum.

I decided not to fight the crowds, but more than one of my coworkers went, and all agree that all the speeches were inspiring, and that Obama was electrifying. I like to think that the oh-so-left-wing audiences they find here in Portland put them at their ease by giving them an overwhelmingly warm reception.

I've been reserving judgment on the presidential race to far, partly because Oregon's primaries mean very litter. But now I'm thinking that Obama/Richardson would make a dream ticket.