The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • It’s Funny Because It’s True…

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    mongreldogs
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    … and it hurts so much for exactly the same reason: This cartoon neatly sums up the amazing failure of American democracy over the past few years.

  • What I’m Reading: 2008 July

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    mongreldogs
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    This is the first in a regular series of posts meant more for myself than anyone else. I just want to keep a record of what I’m reading. So far in July: Public Enemies: The True Story of America’s Greatest Crime Wave by Bryan Burrough (552 p) Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meaning…

  • Health of the Republic: Down 7% to 5%

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    mongreldogs
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    I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while but net issues have been keeping me away. In any event, the recent passage of the so-called “FISA reform” (now with telecom immunity!) has sent the Health of the Republic tumbling downward. I had begun to be cautiously optimistic that American liberty might begin…

  • Contata (2)

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    mongreldogs
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    So, on to Contata proper. (See this earlier article for context.) A filk con is different from a regular con (assuming that my limited experience at Lunacon allows me to generalize about a “regular” con) in that the filk con is explicitly organized around the music. In a lot of ways, it was really just…

  • Contata (1)

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    mongreldogs
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    I spent this weekend at the hotel Hilton Parsippany, attending a sci fi con called “Contata 5“. In a somewhat strange co-branding fashion this was also NEFilk 18 — apparently, NEFilk is sort of an umbrella designation. Filk is an odd branch of music deriving from (originally, literally via typo) folk music — it’s folk…

  • My two cents

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    mongreldogs
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    I suspect I will write more on this, eventually, but for now, here’s what I’ve sent to the Obama campaign regarding the Senator’s disappointing collapse on FISA: I have contributed over $500 to the Senator’s campaign, more than all my previous contributions in my life. I had intended to donate all the way to the…

  • Call to Action: Oppose Telecom Immunity

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    mongreldogs
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    Tomorrow (Jun 20) the House is likely to pass a “compromise” revision to the FISA law so as to, in effect, grant complete immunity to telecommunication companies who knowingly broke the law in supporting the Bush administration’s illegal eavesdropping program. Make no mistake: This isn’t about the telecoms per se — House Democrats offered to…

  • Shameless but useful Me-too!

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    mongreldogs
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    As much as I hate just pointing to other people’s blog entries, I had to link to something from the Carpetbagger Report: “It’s a delicate dance, and John McCain is ‘liable to break a hip’“. In it, CB lists all the different ways John McCain has flip-flopped since beginning his current run at the Presidency.…

  • Jacked!

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    mongreldogs
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    OK, so one sign of not writing enough on your blog is having it highjacked and you don’t even notice. Bleh. Somewhere between May 27 and today (Jun 4), some nefarious party registered itself and inserted nasty code into one or more of my pages… possibly through comments. When I tried to visit today, ZoneAlarm…

  • Another disturbing slip

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    mongreldogs
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    On 2008 May 22, John McCain attacked his presumed opponent Barack Obama (and of course, that’s just politics, so it’s fine), saying But I am running for the office of Commander-in-Chief. Here’s the problem. McCain is wrong. He’s not running for the office of Commander-in-Chief. In case it’s slipped his mind, he’s running for the…