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Breakfast of Champions 5/8: Reasoned Dialogue in the Polis
Filed under: Breakfast of Champions
Often during meeting at City Pages Global HQ, we talk about how we'd like to get more comments on the blogs. Discussion is fun! It's the lifeblood of the polis! It exemplifies Aristotle's maxim of rational actors reasoning together!
Except it's the Internet. We always forget that part.
We're getting more comments on the blogs lately, which is great. Bring 'em on, especially the critical ones. Constructive criticism is healthy and necessary, and vicious criticism is often hilarious. Take, for example, the latest comment on an old Ron Paul post:
---
Name: ART DEKKO
ANYONE WITH BRAINS (UN-WASHED BY THE MEDIA) STILL INTACT....HAVING HEARD OF
RON PAUL....MUST CERTAINLY VOTE FOR HIM.
IMAGINE....GETTING ALL THOSE VOTES THUS FAR, WITH A TOTAL NEW YORK MEDIA
BLACKOUT.
YOU BOYS ARE SCARED SHITLESS.
RON PAUL GETS MY FAMILIES VOTES IN NOVEMBER."
---
Nothing says sanity like caps lock. He gets points for the name, though. Unless it's not a pun, but his actual name, in which case I award his parents the points.
I don't mean to pick on this particular commenter, or even the swarm of Paulbot commentators whose name is (and numbers are) legion. I say this in all sincerity -- we appreciate every reader, including those that give us a hard time. Besides, that whole thread is made of 100% pure weapons-grade comment win, and whenever I'm having a bad day, I go back and read it. It is like mirth in pixel form. If the threads start picking up, I'd love to start a "Comment of the Day" or "Comment of the Week" feature.
Okay, back to work. Those brains aren't going to wash themselves.
DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE
Three new Culture to Go posts highlight the morning's offerings. Caroline Palmer, who writes on dance for print, is going to be doing more line for us as well. Today she gives you a preview of the new ARENA dance performance, which begins today and draws on the imagery of Gustav Klimt.
The Grammy-winning Swell Season came to the Orpheum, and Andrea Myers was there. Desiree Weber's review of Tokyo Police Club at the Varsity also includes notes on opening band Smoosh, who I saw play at the Columbia River Gorge when they were pre-teens. No, really. I remember songs about whales and unicorns. OK, I've said too much.
Matt Snyders likes the smoking ban in bars, but finds it against his principles. True, his principles are the wrong principles, but they are better than no principles at all.
Hey, another cool band flyer.
The latest on the Strib bankruptcy story is here. More possibly coming later today, depending on if I can run it down or not.
It's intriguing to see the press' differing reactions to the Democratic race here and overseas. Kevin Hoffman notes that Obama has effectively won already, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from mainstream American press coverage. Elsewhere in the world, it's being taken almost as a given. Check out this article from the German news source Der Spiegel entitled "The End of the Clinton Era." Pretty succinct.
Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 8, 2008 8:12 AM
« Smoking Bans: Good Ol' Fashioned, Good-Intentioned Folly | Main | Pothole of the day: A triumph for the ages »
Comments
"Constructive" Not at all. criticism, seems to be your only trade mark.
Sorry, but I've had enough of this kind of "blogging" already. Nothing new. Nothing constructive about it. BYE
Posted by: JJ at May 8, 2008 9:31 AM
Perhaps JJ could point CP to all those positive news stories about there about how well everything is going in the land of Bush and honey.
Posted by: Mark Gisleson at May 8, 2008 10:24 AM
"Wrong principles."
Shaw, I gotta admit, I never had you pegged for a moral absolutist. Why must you break my heart so?
Posted by: Snyders at May 8, 2008 12:32 PM
I'm not generally a moral absolutist, but your argument seems to be "sure, the smoking ban is good for public health, but peoples' right to smoke in public trumps that." These are the wrong principles.
And I break your heart because I am pretty like a girl.
Posted by: Jeff Shaw at May 8, 2008 12:51 PM
This is true. And I mean that in the best way possible.
But just to clarify my point: I'm not vouching for peoples' right to smoke in public. I'm vouching for a bar owner's right to allow (and, for that matter, disallow) people to smoke in his/her private establishment.
Posted by: Snyders at May 8, 2008 2:23 PM
How exactly is caps lock indicative of mental stability? Whereas the poster may have simply not realized that the caps lock was on, you are totally aware of your intent. Who might you be endorsing? It matters not.
If you are for any of the three media darlings you are insane, caps lock or not. You want more posts? Be more honest. You'll have visitors for the content instead of the use of Ron Paul's name in the title. I believe you need it spelled out for you so here it is; using a popular google search name on your site to attract hits is like wearing a beehive for public attention. You sting the people you want to visit.
YOU CAN BE SMARTER THAN THAT YOU MORON
Posted by: Michael D at May 8, 2008 4:49 PM
What's funny is this: we actually don't get very many hits off of the Ron Paul posts. You say it's a "popular google search," but it's really just a hard core of a few people that have Google News keyed to his name and fly to defend Ron's honor in droves. Relatively few people, although very committed, I'll grant.
I actually post about Ron Paul just because I've been following his career for almost a decade, consider him a dangerous lunatic, and am flabbergasted that anyone thinks he might be sane -- let alone a viable candidate for public office.
Posted by: Jeff Shaw at May 8, 2008 6:08 PM
"A hard core of a few people..." You know, somewhat over 1,000,000 people voted in the Republican primary. In Pennsylvania (my state) you had to be a registered Republican to vote in the primary. Paul received over 128,000 votes. I've also followed his career for over a decade. He intelligent, honest, and quite sane. Now, if you are a Republican, who would you vote for? That war-hungry McCain (who comes pre-packaged with his own "On to Iran" cheerleader, Lieberman)? Now these "Bombsy Twins" are really "dangerous lunatics" -- of course, you want more war and more death and more debt.
Posted by: L. Step at May 8, 2008 8:01 PM
I like comments, but I like porn more. Go figure...
Posted by: Helm Matthews at May 8, 2008 8:59 PM
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