Access denied

The first time I skimmed the post introducing this resource (see and click above), I gathered it was mainly a map of areas where Facebook and other sites that encourage kids to commodify themselves were not available. While I do take my first amendment rights seriously, I have little use for 'social networking'. Adults should not require formal mechanisms to facilitate social relationships, which are by their very nature arise out of one's existing relationships or by happenstance; in this I acknowledge a kernel of romanticism, but friendship is gossamer and specific, and doesn't answer to an ad.

Yesterday, however, I tried to go to the Daily Star, which I do most days. Somehow my computer has captured some regional US paper that is also called Daily Star and it fills in this address when I try to type it in the bar at the top of the page. So I googled daily star, and the first result is the correct one, but Google prohibits access to the site! I find this incredible and of course I do realize that social networking sites play a different role in places where there is no first amendment, and where rights of assembly, free speech and a free press either don't exist or are otherwise more fragile than they are in the US today, at least for the time being. See Naomi Wolf, The End of America (or, as the Guardian puts it:) 'Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps'.

One Plane, One Vote

I heard today from some one who knows that (topping the news reports) the Dubai Air Show saw $130 billion in sales--in 2 days. This included $35 billion in sales to Qatar alone, which, as this person observed, would provide sufficient aircraft to put the entire Qatari population in flight a la fois. There is so much that is so grotesque about that but I will limit myself to the observation that it does tend to bring one back to reality with respect to the limitations on the possible impact of individual decisions on the overall future of the planet, or of anything that takes place upon it. I liked the little garbage game I wrote about in the previous entry ('Gotham Garbage'), and I don't intend to withdraw it as I make no claims about what I'm doing with this blog, but I do feel the need to acknowledge, with some distaste, the relative whimsy of this and so much else that I think and do and write.

I started out so much more aware of the futility of liberal politics, and somehow have backslided as I have aged. I didn't bother voting in the first election for which I was eligible. Not because of apathy, mind; but out of a conviction that party politics in the US was essentially an alibi--and not a benign one-- for not engaging in the more demanding work required to build a more just society. While I don't think I ever stopped believing that, I did get to a point where my activism had declined to the point where my (well grounded!) theoretical radicalism had become my excuse for failing to behave as a political actor at all.

Today I vote. On the whole I guess I think it is better to have the right and exercise it than otherwise, even if it is still largely coke vs pepsi. I don't despise the marginal comfort I take from the idea that, while I may ever be haunted by the Mondale presidency that might have been, I am blameless (in an electoral sense) for the depredations of Mr. Bush.

This is a ways from Dubai. Whimsy.

Gotham Garbage

Living in New York, I can only shop for as much food and other supplies as my two hands can carry in, yes, plastic bags (loaded down, paper tears sooner). If I'm not travelling, I usually make it to two farmers' markets per week, where I buy most of my food. But sometimes this doesn't happen or it does but I don't plan well enough and get home late or just tired, usually lazy, and decide to order in. Like other New Yorkers, I consider the luxury of a wide variety of delivery options at all hours to be an entitlement. I can't buy much in advance (how will I transport it? where will I put it?) but if it's 10 pm and I want a whole roasted branzino or salt and pepper lotus root or pastrami on rye with a pickle, I can have any one or all of these on my plate within the hour, with no more effort than it takes to pick up the phone or click on a web site.

Each time I take the easy way out, I'm left with mountains of garbage--or recycling, as I prefer to think of it. Not that that should make me feel much better. The sheer volume of plastic containers--often containers within containers-- is pretty staggering. I'm trying to cut back.

I guess I'm still going to have to do better. Check it out:

I played The Gotham Gazette Garbage Game and sent 2,014,352 tons of refuse across 793,937 miles.