politics – Page 6 – linsenbardt.net

May 9, 2007

Of Generation Gaps and Twitter…

So, before yesterday, I’d never heard of Twitter…I had to learn about it from an NPR podcast I listened to… It’s apparently a new social networking phenomenon (a la Facebook or MySpace…) that tells the world what you’re doing at any given time. You can post, IM or use a cell phone with text messaging to post a short blurb giving everyone an update, and then you can subscribe to these updates by various means… For example, I could subscribe to your Twitter account and anytime you’d update it, my cell phone would vibrate and I’d receive a text message letting me know what’s up. You can write any message you want, from “looking at websites” to “eating a ham sandwich”…

According to the Wikipedia article, Twitter has been around since October of 2006… NPR and the New York Times, amongst others, have done articles about it… Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world use it, apparently…and this leads me to my point:

Why did it take until May for me to hear about it?

I guess it means I’ve reached something of a turning point… Up until now, I’ve kept up with technology and websites relatively well – Truman students knew about Facebook before it was even available for them to join, and well before news organizations jumped on it as a “phenomenon”… And I keep up with geeky things like that pretty regularly looking at sites like Slashdot and Engadget… So do we all eventually reach a point when our knowledge of the world becomes antiquated? You hear stories from parents beginning with “when I was your age…” all the time, and at some point, all of our parents probably realized that they were knowing less and less about the generation(s) that were coming after them… My generation is just barely involved in the whole “social networking” thing, but the high school students at church are all over MySpace – I simply have no interest in it. Back in college, I’d hear about stuff from friends in classes and new sites to visit, but we don’t really talk about such things in grad school…I’d assume that “real world jobs” would be similar…

I guess I just wasn’t planning on hitting this realization just before turning 25… I figured it’d happen after I had kids, and after they got a bit older and started getting into their own interests… I wasn’t thinking that I’d reach a point where I can visually see the generation just behind mine gradually distancing itself from mine…if only in this one sector of our lives…

I’m sure I’m just over-reacting, but with the world moving faster and faster and more information becoming available over the internet, it makes you wonder if the number of years between each generational shift is decreasing… For example, I’ve never thought that my sister and I (separated by 3 years) were in different generations, but maybe we are…

Has anyone else heard of or used Twitter, or is it just me?

January 16, 2007

MLK for today's world…and for whom?

So, I regularly listen to the On Point radio broadcast on NPR (yeah, I’m that dorky…) via podcast, and yesterday, they were talking about Martin Luther King, Jr… More specifically, they were discussing whether he would be with today’s Republicans or today’s Democrats. From the summary:

“King personified Christian activism in politics, they say — and so do we. King said judge not by the color of skin but by the quality of character, they say — when they oppose affirmative action. King did not speak up for gay marriage, they say — and conservatives don’t either. Progressives are appalled”

The idea is that both sides want to claim him for themselves. For example, the Conservatives say that because King was a preacher, he’d be against gay marriage. Liberals say that because he was for equality in all things, he would be more sympathetic to their cause. The Conservatives also use his classic “I Have A Dream” speech to say that King wanted full equality in the workplace, so he would be against Affirmative Action (because that entire program goes against equality), while the Liberals say that sure, King was for equality, but he would want Affirmative Action to stay in place until equality was assured (which it obviously isn’t, yet).

At the link above, you can find quotes from the show from the people interviewed, as well as a recording of the 40 min. broadcast. Rather interesting to hear…

The thing that really got me, though, is the parallels I see with Christianity in general. These people were basing arguments on his singular speech. What do we, as Christians, do with Jesus? Don’t we try to fit our faiths, no matter what they are, on reported events and sayings from 2000 years ago? I mean, Dr. King died less than a century ago and people are already claiming that he believed things to suit their needs!

Perhaps we need to step back and take a different perspective on fitting our idols into a proverbial “box.” If we can’t figure out what a person would believe in today’s context, when they’ve only been gone for 50 years, how can we fit something from 2000 years ago into today’s world?

January 16, 2007

MLK for today’s world…and for whom?

At the link above, you can find quotes from the show from the people interviewed, as well as a recording of the 40 min. broadcast. Rather interesting to hear…

November 22, 2006

Skip the turkey, have a dinosaur!

For those of us that figured all the true nut-jobs are found in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and, yes, even Missouri…let’s not forget Kentucky!

According to this blurb at Slashdot, there’s a new museum opening next year in Kentucky, close to the Ohio border. It’s going to be devoted to Creationism. The article at The Guardian describing the “venture” states:

The Creation Museum – motto: “Prepare to Believe!” – will be the first institution in the world whose contents, with the exception of a few turtles swimming in an artificial pond, are entirely fake.

And perhaps more amusing:

As you stand in the museum’s lobby – the only part of the building approaching completion – you are surrounded by life-size dinosaur models, some moving and occasionally grunting as they chew the cud.Beside the turtle pool, two animatronic, brown-complexioned children, demurely dressed in Hiawatha-like buckskin, gravely flutter with movement. Behind them lurk two small Tyrannosaurus Rexes. This scene is meant to date from before the Fall of Man and, apparently, dinosaurs.

The museum has a web site, of course…feel free to browse…they have a lovely walk-through of the proposed plans… The thing will cost $25 million, and all but $3 million has been donated. (personally, I think I could find plenty of other things to do with $25 million, like, oh, feed all the poor people in New York City for the next decade?) Apparently, the museum gift shop is done up like a medieval castle…’cause knights used to fight dinosaurs (read: dragons) all the time!

These shenanigans remind me of a show I watched at Brooke’s parent’s house a few weeks ago…I was flipping through the TV channels on a Saturday morning and ran across a show discounting evolution on one of the religious channels…using “real scientists”! Of particular note, one of the historians they had on the show was recounting the story of Beowulf, referring specifically to the description of the monster in the story. This shrub said that the existence of a dinosaur in Beowulf was proof that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time, thus the Bible must be correct. So now, not only should the Bible be sacred, but so should Beowulf and accounts of sea merchants sighting monsters in the oceans…and how knights of the Middle Ages fought dinosaurs daily…I mean…dragons… (which the historian also referred to…this is a trend, apparently).

So, this Thanksgiving, you should go find a dinosaur and eat it instead of a turkey… Turkeys have too much tryptophan (the amino acid that makes you sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner) and you certainly get more meat out of a Velociraptor…

November 10, 2006

Heckuvajob, Rummy…

In honor of our fallen comrade:

“There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don?t know that we don’t know.”
— Donald Rumsfeld, trying to clarify the war on terrorism

November 7, 2006

I Voted

So yeah, I got up bright and early and hit the polls at 7:20 am… (bet you’re surprised, eh Mom? Happy Birthday, by the way… ;-)) Overall, the experience was rather positive… In years past, I’ve always just voted absentee rather than visit polls in Kirksville, so this is actually the first time I’ve ever voted on election day.

Regardless, I had the option of using the electronic, touch-screen device, or I could have used the more traditional “scan tron” paper ballots… There were more people using the touch-screens, but still a good number using paper ballots. The touch-screen machines were quite easy to use and also included a roll of paper to print your votes, as well as store them within the machine. I’ve been reading through various articles about how easy it is to have an election stolen (great article, but a long read…) with these electronic voting machines, since many of them (the Diebold AccuVote TSX in particular…) have no sort of secondary printer to, in effect, “back up your vote.” In case of a recount, my vote can still be compared between the electronic copy and the paper copy that was printed and stored within the machine… So yeah, I felt much more comfortable about the whole experience after using that machine…

Note: If you want to watch the HBO documentary “Hacking Democracy,” regarding Diebold’s shenanigans, you can watch it on Google Video (for free)…it’s about 1.5 hrs long, but worth it if you don’t want to watch election coverage tonight…

…however, I did have one complaint, and that was with the actual voting using the machine. In years past, when I’ve done my absentee, I could always not vote on a particular issue or judge I knew nothing about… Unfortunately, each circuit judge on the ballot (and there were many…) had a “yes” or “no” option, not an “abstain”… Perhaps you could have just hit “Next” and skip over them that way…I dunno…and I didn’t try… I figure all those judges are doing alright, so whatever… 😛

For those that voted, what “methods” of voting did you have? Were there voting machines with rolls of paper included, or were the completely electronic with no paper “backup?” Were there lots of people still using paper ballots?

Regardless, I participated in the process of government today…

Tonight’s returns should be pretty interesting….

November 5, 2006

An AUDIO ADRENALINE Concert

(not a Mercy Me Concert)

So, last night, we had tickets to Mercy Me, Audio Adrenaline, and Phil Wickham. The concert started at 7:00, so we thought if we got there a little after it was supposed to start, we wouldn’t have to hear a bad opener or wait for a whole bunch of stage changes. However, we got there at about 7:15 and only caught the end of the last Phil Wickham song, then Audio Adrenaline was ready to go on in about 5 minutes. We went to the concert because it was Audio Adrenaline’s last tour stop in St. Louis ever, since their lead singer’s voice is shot. They were pretty good, but the set was only about 35 minutes long and it’s pretty obvious that the singer’s voice is not doing so well. After the reason we went the the concert, we decided to stay to hear Mercy Me do “I Can Only Imagine.” Of course, they sang about a bazillion other songs first and talked and preached and talked. Their show was so polished and timed and had synced videos and way too much preaching. Andy and I were both bored and ready to go, but were waiting for “I Can Only Imagine” and stuck it out, then got out of there before the masses. So, the moral of the story is Audio Adrenaline=Good, Mercy Me=not-much-better-than-average.

October 30, 2006

Top 11 signs Dubya thinks he's president of a college fraternity

From Too Stupid To Be President.com

11. Encourages minions to run three miles in 100 degree heat then taunts them as he rides his bicycle.

10. Greets interns by letting one rip.

9. Refers to everyone only by the nickname he has bestowed.

8. Should have been gone after four years, but he just won’t leave.

7. Amasses enormous institutional debt throwing private parties for his friends.

6. Cheats to secure a second term.

5. Resorts to belligerence rather than admit a mistake.

4. Has summers off.

3. Encourages others to perform community service, but only shows up for the cameras.

2. Smart kid provides him answers using a hidden audio transmitter.

1. May be kicked out of his house before the end of term.