gdp's Comments

Re/Creating Tampa : Random Sitcom Idea

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:49:27 +0000

In my dream version, the opening credits are an homage to the Planet of the Apes (with the date dial spinning out of control), David Cross is a semi-regular as one of the Alabama rednecks, and a besotted Dave Foley plays the loopy commander back at home. Hmmmm, maybe all the actors should be named Dave... And, it would be written by Dave Eggers!

Re/Creating Tampa : Life by Francis Bacon

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:41:00 +0000

Bacon is making that connection. Tho, he was also critical of Plato. Bacon isn't a fan of speculating on first causes, nor on Plato's postulation of perfect forms. But he did like that allegory of the cave.

Re/Creating Tampa : Net Neutrality

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:27:30 +0000

Evolution and free market ideas are alike in that they were created to address specific questions and are often misapplied to different questions. Darwin's theory of evolution is about species variation, and Spencer misapplied the theory to comparing cultures and ethics. Similarly, applying free market ideas to telecoms (which get special breaks from the government and are in some ways stewards of limited public resources) distorts the purpose and value of free markets. That said, it does seem like this is a situation where freedom for one side leads to unfair constraints on the other. I'm not sure what the solution might be. Perhaps if common carrier laws were applied to the infrastructure, but the ISPs were allowed to do what they want? So, Verizon could throttle your bandwidth all they wanted, but you could use your local independent ISP who promised net neutrality. But whatever happened to all the independent ISPs? Way back in the Internet stone age I used to get my service from a small start-up that I visited monthly to pay my bill in cash. Do Verizon, AT&T, Brighthouse, and the other giant ISPs even have small, local, independent competitors anymore?

Re/Creating Tampa : Random Sitcom Idea

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:15:55 +0000

of course! (and are there any other kind?)

Re/Creating Tampa : Does progress imply a goal?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:14:37 +0000

OK, what about software iterations? They progress from one version to the next, but are they measured against an idealized standard?

Re/Creating Tampa : Does progress imply a goal?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:11:05 +0000

(Oh, I'm not beating myself up. The progress question is separate from my busy-ness comments.) I'm trying to parse out the conservative argument against Obama and progressivism, etc. This conflation of progressivism and socialism goes back at least to Hayek. It seems like most popular conservatives "know" this but don't articulate it well. Plus, some conservatives (like Disraeli and Russell Kirk) accept that there can be a balance between progress and tradition. However, I'm still not sure if progress must be teleological. Popper argues that progress doesn't have to be a part of an overarching plan, and I think that's right, but reducing the idea of progress to its most discrete, situational elements strikes me as a little weird. So, I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of an abderitic progress. (Abderitic is Kant's term for a historical trajectory that is neither the lot of humanity improving, nor the lot of humanity getting worse, but is rather a chaotic combination of things getting better and worse. Kant argued that this was the most ridiculous way to portray history, and that historians have a moral responsibility to demonstrate that things are getting better; i.e. progressing.)

Re/Creating Tampa : Debunking Health Care Reform Critics

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 16:10:39 +0000

CL - I think that's right, and I think there are a lot of important debates to have about federal/state governance. I'm actually pretty sympathetic to 10th amendment arguments. Unfortunately, I don't hear many principled arguments about the role the 10th amendment should take. Some folks simply use it to advocate for their pet positions, rather than making a principled argument for its use.

Re/Creating Tampa : Ze Frank at Time Magazine

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:26:29 +0000

I should have mentioned this in the post, but it seemed so obvious I forgot. Ze Frank is awesome.

Re/Creating Tampa : Sustainable Past, Sustainable Future

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:02:27 +0000

Uh oh, not so excellent.

Re/Creating Tampa : Is it a cold or a flu?

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:37:14 +0000

A productive cough gets a job and helps cover the cost of lozenges. An unproductive cough just lies around the house all day watching Sports Center. Um, no, wait. A productive cough is when you are able to produce some phlegm and clear out your lungs a little, and an unproductive cough is when none of that phlegm moves. A productive cough can actually be a bad thing if the secretion you're producing is blood (for example). But, for the garden variety cold, I can testify that unproductive coughs are maddening.

Re/Creating Tampa : 100,000+ anti-war protesters hardly worth mentioning; 50,000 health reformer protesters = front page

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:14:52 +0000

Shuster later amended: \\\"I\\\'ve covered rallies at dc capitol for 20 years. When the crowd goes only as far as 3rd st, it is 50,000 or less.\\\" It also seems like the park police doesn\\\'t do official tallies anymore, so Shuster\\\'s official was speaking in an unofficial capacity. Even conceding the high end of 80,000 still demonstrates that many more people will show up for civil rights, abortion rights, gay rights, anti-war protests, and other issues important to the left. Focusing all of our media attention on this confused minority isn\\\'t helping anyone (except maybe our corporate overlords and their minions in the halls of power).

Re/Creating Tampa : Florida GOP gives Hugo Chavez drilling rights off Florida Coast

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 13:09:57 +0000

Thanks, Mary. Just in general I think it's a bad idea to give rights and tax breaks to secret cabals. I guess I'm weird that way.

Re/Creating Tampa : Dullest Blog in the World

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 01:20:16 +0000

never heard of it, but i like this wikipedia description - "In Jim's world, it is enough to simply exist, and order a pizza once in a while."

Re/Creating Tampa : The Myth of American Meritocracy

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:24:49 +0000

This is true. I am a bitter, angry, jealous man. Denied my true avocation of television punditry, I vent my bile writing scandalous posts about my social, intellectual, and moral betters. Of course, I blame my parents. If they had only worked harder and accomplished more, I could be riding their gravy train into history.

Re/Creating Tampa : Dullest Blog in the World

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:19:13 +0000

de nada. being lumped with those guys is no insult. just striving to wage my one man war on error.

Re/Creating Tampa : Bollywood in Tampa

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:25:55 +0000

Ha! "Cheap, Empty and Without Explanation" would be a great title for something.

Re/Creating Tampa : What's the alternative to employment?

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:08:50 +0000

Some days I feel pessimistic. But, tonight I've been reading about the excesses of the 1920s when government seemed to be equal parts corruption, plutocrat, and gangster.

The next generation will still fall in love, make babies, fight with friends, and wonder in astonishment at the world around them. In between, they'll get bored, feel sad, lie in the sun, smile at kittens and puppies, and experience the other 10,000 banal, human moments that make life life.

I'm willing to bet the future won't be paradise, but it won't be inferno either.

On the other hand, I'm pretty confident we're living in a great age of endumbening. It's like the movie Idiocracy is a for-real documentary from the future.

Re/Creating Tampa : More Debunking of the Health Care Bill Critics

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:13:25 +0000

I don't even know what to think of this. I love alt weeklies, but it's hard for me to imagine a hedge fund running one well. On the other hand, an infusion of money would help. And there are some noises that the new boss wants to beef up editorial and reporting, which would be great if it happened.

Re/Creating Tampa : Debunking Health Care Reform Critics

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:59:21 +0000

Hi, Tim - I'm just a regular schmo, so I can't say with any definite authority, but the way I read the House bill is that it does not forbid switching back. There seems to have been some effort to keep the playing field even between the gov't plan and private plans, and some effort to keep the gov't health insurance numbers from expanding to include everyone. That said, who knows what the final bill will look like. There are so many rumors and suggestions pronounced daily that I'd hate to guess how it's all going to end up.

Re/Creating Tampa : Debunking Health Care Reform Critics

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:38:06 +0000

Agreed. And sometimes I'm just optimistic enough to think it will happen!