Dirac Angestun Gesept

I had a good time at Readercon. My panel notes are still on the Palm. Full report TK.

So there’s this soi-disant literary agent (when you don’t appear to have any sales, despite claiming to have been representing authors since 1984, I think you are probably not), Barbara Bauer. She’s on Writer Beware’s Twenty Worst Agencies list. So far, whatever; no different than the other 19, right?

Well, except for her multiple attempts to get sites closed down or her sending of legal threats for one! billion! dollars! for mentioning her name. Most recently, the Absolute Write discussion site disappeared rather suddenly, apparently due to their ISP rolling over for an abusive phone call that may have mentioned the DMCA.

There’s a bunch of coverage around on this, including two posts from Miss Snark.

It’s all about Barbara Bauer. Hmm, Google juice much?

The American Repertory Theater (at Zero Arrow Street, near Harvard) is running Charlie Victor Romeo for a few more days.

It’s a 90-minute play based on cockpit voice recorder transcripts from accidents, but it is definitely not just for the aviation enthusiast. (The cast, writers, and director have had no aviation experience at all.) The set is minimal, but the acting is wonderful and the sound design…oh, the sound design. Each of the six accidents is introduced by a simple text slide, giving the flight, aircraft, date, number of people aboard, and cause. At the end of each, another slide gives the aftermath: survivors (if any) and casualties.

After the show, there’s time to discuss the play with the cast and creators; you should stick around for it if you’re curious about how they interpreted it, why they chose those accidents, or anything like that. The audience questions tonight ranged from discussion with a former pilot to questions from people without aviation experience, but all enjoyed it.

Had I seen it sooner, I’d have blogged it sooner. As it is, it’s only showing through Sunday. If you’re staying in town, or if you can go Thursday even if you’re headed for Wiscon, I highly recommend going if at all possible.

Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, in 2000:

Among the handful of principles that are fundamental to any true protection for health care consumers, probably the most important is allowing states to continue in their role as the primary regulator of health insurance. This is a principle which has been recognized–and respected–for more than 50 years. In 1945, Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act, a clear acknowledgment by the federal government that states are indeed the most appropriate regulators of health insurance. It was acknowledged that states are better able to understand their consumers’ needs and concerns. It was determined that states are more responsive, more effective enforcers of consumer protections. […] Wyoming has its own unique set of health care needs and concerns. Every state does. For example, despite our elevation, we don’t need the mandate regarding skin cancer that Florida has on the books. My favorite illustration of just how crazy a nationalized system of health care mandates would be comes from my own time in the Wyoming legislature.

Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, in 2006, pushing a bill that would pre-empt state regulations on health insurance:

the hodgepodge of varying state mandates makes it difficult for a carrier or trade association to offer coverage on a multi-state basis

What’s the difference? Well, in 2000, he was against Federal regulation by way of a Patient Bill of Rights; in 2006, he’s against state regulations that might require insurers to cover people, or conditions, they’d rather not. (Like, say, mammograms; don’t worry, guys, your “magic” pills will still be covered, I’m sure.)

Philosophical consistency? Well, yes, it’s philosophically consistent. It’s just that the philosophy isn’t “state’s rights”, but rather “loosen regulation on my big campaign contributors.” (2006 election cycle? $113K+ from the insurance industry.)

(Original pointer to S.1955 via Universal Hub; Enzi’s 2000 statement found with a quick Google search.)

A First Communion dream in doubt: the Roman Catholic Church holds firm to their requirement that Communion wafers contain wheat.

In 2001, the Boston Archdiocese told the family of a 5-year-old girl with celiac disease that when she took her First Communion, she could not substitute rice wafers for traditional communion wafers. Her family left the church and began practicing as Methodists.

Last month:

Note: Cardinal Seán has granted a dispensation from the obligation of abstinence for all the faithful of the Archdiocese of Boston for Friday, March 17, 2006, the Feast of Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of our Archdiocese.

First Communion going to cause you health problems? So sorry, but rules are rules. St. Patrick’s Day not the same without corned beef? Dig right in!

Kenji Yoshino’s NYT Magazine article, adapted from a forthcoming book, says what I have long believed: that the right to be yourself as long as it doesn’t harm anyone is the one basic civil right.

As Yoshino puts it, “the aspiration of civil rights - the aspiration that we be free to develop our human capacities without the impediment of witless conformity - is an aspiration that extends beyond traditional civil rights groups.”

Civil rights must rise into a new, more inclusive register. That ascent makes use of the recognition that the mainstream is a myth. With respect to any particular identity, the word “mainstream” makes sense, as in the statement that straights are more mainstream than gays. Used generically, however, the word loses meaning. Because human beings hold many identities, the mainstream is a shifting coalition, and none of us are entirely within it. It is not normal to be completely normal.

“It is not normal to be completely normal.” Indeed.

[This was submitted through their online feedback form; the album in question is Cyndi Lauper’s “Body Acoustic”. If there is anyone in the Boston area who has purchased this disc and is unable to return it, I may be willing to buy it used; I’m unwilling to give Sony/BMG any money directly.]

By blatantly distrusting your customers even as you ask them to trust your software on their computers, you have achieved something amazing.

You have convinced me not to buy this album, and done so while I was at the store, with the CD in one hand and my credit card in the other, ready to purchase a CD that I had gone into the store specifically intending to purchase.

The disc went back on the shelf, the credit card went back into my wallet, and I went back out the door.

Congratulations. I’ve been buying CDs for almost 20 years, spending thousands of dollars over that time, and yet this is the first time anyone has managed to do this.

The most ironic factor, though, is that I’m a Mac user; XCP wouldn’t have stopped me from ripping the CD for one second. Even so, I am unwilling to buy a product that is intentionally damaged.

Yes, you’ve actually lost a sale, not because of piracy, but because of your own onerous restrictions on your paying customers.

It’s a shame, really; I like what I’ve heard. However, I’m even leery of buying the album through iTunes; how can I be sure that Sony/BMG won’t try to add similarly onerous requirements via their contract with Apple?

(I’m also sad that I feel I can no longer consider the top-rated Sony LCD HDTV as a purchase option. A company willing to mistreat customers buying an item selling for less than $20 can hardly expect my trust on an item costing over $1000.)

AP article with quotes about the DeLay indictment:

“Until Majority Leader Tom DeLay has his day in court, it is vitally important he be afforded the same presumption of innocence afforded to every other American.” — National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds of New York.

This prompts two thoughts:

1. Where’s Ed “you wouldn’t be a suspect if you weren’t guilty” Meese these days?

2. Let’s give DeLay all the presumption of innocence that every other American gets…using Jose Padilla’s case as the example to copy.

Michael Jay Tucker:

Is it just me, or . . . Does it seem like the Administration is more interested in protecting the President from having to talk to one, middle-aged, middle class, unarmed woman who happens to be the mother of a dead boy . . . than in protecting American boys and girls from snipers, chemical weapons, and roadside bombs?

(via)

The Guardian has a great article on the emergency services’ reactions to the July 7th bombings in London.

Michael Collinson, an off-duty nurse, recalls stepping into the road near Russell Square station, some minutes after the bombs went off, and commandeering a passing delivery truck, telling the astonished driver it was needed for ferrying medical supplies. A firefighter speeding past Tavistock Square half an hour later, on his way to King’s Cross, recalls seeing the destroyed No 30 bus and thinking it must have gone under a low bridge. And PC Tony Asquith, stretchering commuters through the acrid smoke and heat of the Piccadilly line tunnels, remembers an injured man so shocked that he couldn’t stop talking about his wedding ring, and how upset his wife would be that, in the chaos, it had slipped off and vanished.

Highly recommended.