Infinite Regress

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Obama Girl to Hillary (with Love): Stop the Attacks!
2008-03-25 07:32:00
Obama Girl is back with a brand new video - like her others, a mix of sage political advice (Hillary - stop attacking Obama, it only helps McCain), hilarious, incisive lyrics and special effects (my favorite, for some reason, is Obama Girl talking to Hillary in the diner), and a great, catchy tune.Kudos, plaudits, and accolades to Ben Relles's BarelyPolitical.com team, Amber Lee Ettinger as Obama Girl, and Leah Kauffman for the songs and the singing. "Everyone's got a crush on Obama ... Chris Matthews, Bill Richardson, even George Clooney..." ... Hey, this video even has Bill Clinton playing a mournful saxophone...Here's a special preview ... as I've been saying since the summer, when the history of this revolutionary campaign for the presidency is written, I guarantee it will have a chapter on the contribution of the Obama Girl videos to the YouTube generation...(At the very least, I'll be writing about this in my new book - New New Media - watch for an announcement about tha...
More About: Love , Obama , Stop

New Amsterdam 5: Meets Mad Men
2008-03-25 04:46:00
Interesting, mixed-bag fifth episode of New Amsterdam tonight...On the one hand ... It was good to see John telling Omar, a young jazzman in the 1960s, John's whole story of immortality. It's not completely clear why Omar would have believed such a fantastic tale, though he is aware that his father doesn't seem to be aging, but that's ok ... we can find out later, in a subsequent episode, how Omar comes to fully accept his father's true nature. In the meantime, the 1960s ambience was fine ... making tonight a sort of New Amsterdam takes a page from Mad Men, black bow-ties, white shirts, and all.Meanwhile, in 2008, John's new relationship with Sara is already in danger - she, understandably, doesn't believe much of what John tells her of his past. At the end of the episode, John starts telling her the truth, and she walks away. Unlike Omar, she's not John's flesh and blood, has no memory of John never aging.... And a Google search she performs (it's amazing how quickly...
More About: Law and Order

The L Word Concludes This Season with Powerful Lessons
2008-03-24 20:54:00
I really enjoyed this season of Showtime's The L Word , which concluded last night.My favorite thread comes from the next to last show this season: Kit (always great to see Pam Grier in action) has murder on her mind - she can't abide vicious SheBar owner Dawn buying her Planet out from under her. Kit shows up with a loaded a gun. But before she can fire from behind the curtain, she gets a call from Bette (Jennifer Beals ) - who is overwhelmed with crises at work, needs someone to pick up little Angelica, and Tina (Laurel Holloman), also deluged by crises at work, can't do it. The call snaps Kit out of her killing fugue. But she's not out of the woods just yet. She gets Angelica, brings her home, steps out the room and comes back in to see Angelica playing with Kit's loaded gun ...This was one of those moments in which I really wasn't sure what would happen - what kind of lesson the producers wanted to give us.I was relieved that it was a powerful lesson - with a happy endi...
More About: Season , Lessons , L Word

Lost 4 and 8: A Special, Jumbo Podcast
2008-03-24 00:36:00
Enjoy Lost ?How could you not? It's easily one of the best shows ever on television. The first season took the world by magnetic storm. The finale of the third season is still being talked about. And most people, including me, think the fourth season - which just concluded its first part, consisting of eight episodes - is at least as good as the first season, and, in my opinion, in some respects even better.I've been reviewing every episode on my weekly Levinson news clips podcast.I've compiled them all into a special 68-minute jumbo episode of my Light On Light Through podcast. Plus, I've added a little special commentary at the end.If you like Lost - or just want to know what all the sensation is about - sit back, kick back, and enjoy the podcast below...And, hey, if you have a car that's Bluetooth enabled - like my Prius - just call the following number, and you can hear this entire podcast on your car radio ... 415-223-4122 ... Enjoy...special 60-minute jumbo podcast re...
More About: Podcast , Special , Jumbo

In Treatment 8: A Princely Performance
2008-03-23 19:54:00
Week 8 of In Treatment on HBO was it most powerful so far. (I may have said that before - but it's true.)Although Alex's death was no real surprise - I saw it coming last week - I have to admit it brought tears to my eyes. And the funeral scenes were just what the series needed. Paul and we get to see people for the names he and Alex had been discussing ... we meet Alex's wife, children, gay friends, and, of course, Alex's father. Laura's presence was also just right, and I thought she and Paul looked more comfortable together than any time before. Paul also seemed more human and real - a therapist grappling with his own feelings about his patient's death, but, in the end, just a human being, grieving like any of us for the loss of someone he cared about.But, of course, Paul's feelings as Alex's therapist are what drives the story, and these come into full play in Tuesday's episode, when Paul gets a visit from Alex's father, played brilliantly by Glynn Turman (Mayor ...
More About: Performance , The Wire , Blair Underwood , In Treatment

Further Thoughts on Obama's Speech on Racism: It's Lasting Significance, an
2008-03-22 21:19:00
I offered my first impressions on Tuesday of Obama's speech on racism - I said it struck me as an extraordinarily frank and important step forward in America's struggle to understand and overcome racism, and may in the long run make the damage done to Obama's campaign by his relationship with Rev. Wright insignificant.I've tried to let this settle in. Here's what I think about all of this now:1. I'm more convinced that ever that Obama's speech was a major, unprecedented, and ultimately enormously helpful breakthrough on racism in America. I think we'll be seeing the good consequences of Obama's probe of racism - of whites to blacks, and blacks to whites - for years to come. It's nothing but helpful to get these issues - the resentments, the ways of talking and thinking - out into the open, on the table. Obama's speech has been compared to Martin Luther King , Jr.'s "I Have a Dream," but, in some ways, Obama's may be even more important in our current day and age. Ki...
More About: Thoughts , Racism , Speech

More About Lost Season 4: (ii) Michael and Ben, Good and Evil, Alias Echo
2008-03-22 20:30:00
I've been thinking Michael 's unswerving drive to kill himself in Episode 8 - whether by car, gun, or bomb - and I think it's based on more than just Walt's rejection of Michael, after Michael tells Walt about Michael's murder of Ana Lucia and Libby.I think Michael's commitment to end his life shows us that he is a fundamentally good person. Even if Walt had accepted him, Michael would have found it difficult to live with himself. He is not a killer. He shot Ana Lucia because he didn't want any witness to his freeing Ben - a witness that could have interfered with Michael's reunion with Walt. That murder was certainly not admirable, but it was based on love (for his son), not hate or greed. And Michael's shooting of Libby was an unthinking reflex - ignited when Libby surprised him.That being the case, I'm thinking Michael may be on a course to some kind of redemption.Ben is another story. He reminds me of Sloan in Alias - J. J. Abrams' other great production. Sloan...
More About: Lost , Season , Evil

Memo to Networks: Show a Little Decency in Your Reporting of Hillary's Days
2008-03-21 23:03:00
Amidst all the political excitement in the past few days - further reaction to Obama's important speech about racism in America, McCain 's gaffe's about al-Qaeda in Iran, people in the State Department illegally looking at the passports of leading Presidential candidates - I wanted to briefly note, and decry, the shabby way the three 24/7 cable news operations reported Hillary Clinton's release of details of her daily activity as First Lady.CNN, MSNBC, and Fox all couldn't help mentioning what Hillary reported she was doing when Bill was with Monica in the White House.What interest, other than cheap and prurient, does reporting on that serve?Telling Americans that Hillary did more or less about this and that in her years as First Lady makes perfect sense. Reporting that many of her notes of meetings were vague or general is fine and fair game.But reporting on what a wife was doing when her husband's philandering is not - even if the wife happens to be a First Lady who is now r...
More About: Barack Obama , Networks , Show , Days

More About Lost Season 4: Baby Aaron and the Oceanic Six
2008-03-21 22:12:00
I've been debating about whether to write about what the coming attractions at the end of Episode 8 of Lost revealed last night - mainly because I don't like coming attractions settling debates that are going on among fans. Such debates are, after all, one of the joys of watching and loving a television show these days, when you can discuss your interpretations with other fans. Lost, from its very beginning, was always intertwined with the Web.But the coming attractions were so unmistakable on one crucial point that they cannot be ignored. The voice-over says the Oceanic Six have been revealed, and we see pictures of Jack, Sayid, Sun, Hurley, Aaron , and Kate. I was hoping that maybe there was a quick shot of Michael, or Sawyer, just before or after - but that just isn't there. The only conclusion we can come to, unless the coming attractions were deliberately lying to us, is that Aaron is one of the Oceanic Six.I've always loved babies - being a beaming father, as well as u...
More About: Baby , Season

Lost 4.8: Michael and Alex
2008-03-21 05:43:00
Episode 8 of this Season of Lost - the final episode of this first part of the 4th Season - was mostly about Michael . But I think the most important part may have been about Alex .First, Michael - his story was told superbly in this episode, in a flashback that goes back not to before the crash of 815, but to the time after Ben sets Michael and Walt free from the island. When we first see this flashback, it's not entirely clear that it isn't a flashforward, to the time after the Oceanic Six have left the island. Michael - like Jack - is despondent, and tries to take his own life. Like Jack, he doesn't succeed.Tom appears and explains to Michael just why he couldn't commit suicide. But, first, Tom's very appearance tells us this is a flashback to after Michael first left the island, not an Oceanic Six flashforward. Because, as we saw at the end of Season 3, Tom will return to the island and be killed by Sawyer when Hurley prevents the execution of Sawyer, Sayid, and Bernard...

David Gregory's Race To The White House Off to Good Start on MSNBC
2008-03-20 00:04:00
So, I finally got a chance in this hectic week to see David Gregory's new Race to the White House , which replaced Tucker Carlson's show at 6pm.I thought Race to the White House was excellent. And I enjoyed it a lot more than Carlson's show.It's interesting to analyze why.After all, Carlson and Gregory both talk a lot about politics, and if Gregory has more experience as a reporter, Carlson certainly is at least as articulate, and a lot more humorous.But Tucker Carlson's show always seemed somewhat listless, in contrast to Gregory's show which was bursting with energy.Here are some of the reasons:.Gregory's Race to the White House has sharp, colorful graphics and scenics ... the red-orange background is hot and welcoming. (In contrast, and in McLuhanesque terms*, Tucker Carlson's whole approach may have been too laid back and cool.).Mike Murphy, one of the panelists, has one of the sharpest wits going. He had me and most of the panelists laughing a dozen or more times toni...
More About: Start

Arthur C. Clarke, Last of Titans, Is Gone
2008-03-18 23:23:00
Back in the 1950s, three science fiction writers accounted for the lion's share and more of my great reading - Isaac Asimov , Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke . Asimov and Heinlein have, sadly, been long gone. Arthur C. Clarke died today at age 90.His Childhood's End, and its haunting, mystical story of aliens - the Overlords - coming to Earth, captured me when I was younger than ten. I still count it as among the best novels I've ever read.Clarke was not as prolific as Asimov or Heinlein, but that didn't matter. His connection to the cosmos had a probity, a clarity, and even a sweetness, all its own. Clarke continued this kind of writing in movies as well as books and stories - he is of course best known as the writer of Kubrick's 2001.2001 was the year, as fate would have it, that I was finishing my second term as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America. On more than one occasion, I called upon Arthur C. Clarke for his sage advice.But Clarke contributed m...
More About: Titans , Stanley Kubrick

Barack Obama's Speech about Racism in America: First Impressions
2008-03-18 16:50:00
I just finished seeing Barack Obama 's speech about racism in America , delivered in Philadelphia. It was the most extraordinary speech I've heard about racism - about its roots and realities in black and white America, about the legitimate grievances and fears of both communities - delivered by anyone, let alone someone running for President.Obama also talked about Rev. Wright. I don't know if Obama can ever give a satisfactory explanation for why he kept this man as his pastor for so many years. Obama cannot now go back in time and undo that. However much he now condemns what Wright said, however much Obama wants to stand by him as a friend and a human being - none of that can change what Wright said, and Obama's relationship with him for so many years.Bur Obama's speech this morning was so important, so courageous and perceptive in what it addressed, that Obama's relationship with Wright may no longer matter.As Obama stressed many times, America can never move forward unl...
More About: First Impressions , Racism

New Amsterdam 4: Poetry and Parenthesis
2008-03-18 03:23:00
One of the things I really like about New Amsterdam is the way that poetry weaves through almost every episode ... Omar Khayyam, Walt Whitman, and, tonight, John quotes the famous parenthesis line from e. e. cummings, "life's not a paragraph. And death I think is no parenthesis." Hey, when was the last time you heard cummings quoted (he spelled his name in small letters) in a prime time show on Fox...John quotes this line as he and Sara walk in the New York evening, and draw ever closer. The line, of course, has an especially profound meaning for John, which Sara doesn't know. John's life, going on four centuries, is surely not a paragraph. It's an epic. And close calls with death have not only been no parenthesis, but barely a dot on John's page.John's been struck by swords, accidents, and gunshot dots, of which we saw one tonight. Back in the Bronx in 1813, John challenges his arrogant aristocratic boss to a duel. The boss takes what he pleases with women, including i...
More About: Poetry , New Amsterdam

John Adams: Good Founding Father, Bad President Makes Great Television on H
2008-03-17 04:55:00
The Adams Chronicles mini-series on PBS in 1976 has long been one of my all-time television favorites. And, seeing as how I don't at all like the real John Adams, the second President of the United States, that's saying a lot.I just saw the first two episodes on HBO's new mini-series, John Adams, and I think I like it better than the Chronicles.Of course, the first two episodes did not get close to the part of the real life of John Adams that makes him a villain in my book. And that book is: respect for the First Amendment to our Constitution. Adams signed the Sedition Act into law shortly after he became President in 1796 - an Act that so trampled the First Amendment, that Thomas Jefferson was close to urging the South to leave the USA back then.I'll tell you more about that era when the HBO mini-series gets there.In the meantime, what I saw is superb, breathtakingly accurate history. David McCullough, author of the book upon which the mini-series is based, is a top-notch h...
More About: Television , Great

New Amstersdam, 1, 2, 3...
2008-03-16 05:58:00
You know how devoted I am to time travel - Journeyman, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the time travel in Lost, and my most recent novel, The Plot to Save Socrates. New Amsterdam on Fox isn't quite time travel, but its story of an immortal in New York City has a lot of classic time travel elements in a hero who's been in town, since before it was a town, and continuously since 1642. In the first three episodes, we've already seen some erudite scenes in the Civil War and 1940s - as well as in the present.I'm also partial to detective fiction - I just finished reviewing The Wire here on Sunday, and, yeah, I've written science fiction detective novels, too, including The Silk Code, The Consciousness Plague, and The Pixel Eye. So much the better, then, that John Amsterdam - the immortal in New Amsterdam - is a smart-talking detective in New York, New York. He's not only sharp, but has, of course, a great and pinpoint accurate historical knowledge. In his centuries he's a been ...

In Treatment 7: Alex in the Sky with Diamonds
2008-03-15 23:40:00
The most powerful session in Week 7 of HBO's In Treatment was with Alex .I actually think of this as Part II of Alex's session in Week 6, in which he began to come to terms with his gay feelings, as well as fully realizing he needed help to sort out his life. In Week 7, Alex's session goes in the opposite direction - macho, in charge, knowing just what he wants to do - which is to get back in the sky and fly again. When his superiors contact Alex, and tell him they have a new assignment, he's all set to go.Paul has already indicated that he thinks Alex may not yet be ready to return to the sky. Alex pleads with Paul - well, with Alex, it's a always as a much of a demand as a request - that Paul tell the military shrink that Alex is in good shape now. Paul clearly doesn't feel good about doing this - but it looks as if he will.Blair Underwood once again gives a tour-de-force performance. And when the session ended, I had the feeling that we may not see Alex again - that he ...
More About: Diamonds , In Treatment

Obama and the Demented "Uncle"
2008-03-15 05:30:00
Barack Obama said on MSNBC's Countdown tonight that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. - pastor of Obama's Church, and a longtime religious mentor - was akin to an "uncle," a member of the family, who says something that "you really disagree with"...Here's some of what this "uncle" has said ... September 11 was "chickens coming home to roost" for America ... "God damn America" ... and, about the Clintons, "Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty." (You can see it all on YouTube videos.)Obama has said he deplores those statements. He says he was not present at the sermons in which they were made. Wright, as of this evening, no longer has any connection to Obama's campaign.Where does that leave us?1. Obama and Wright are not the same person. Nor did Obama ever endorse any of Wright's statements. And Wright's statements never went out under Obama's name (as racist statements did under Ron Paul's).2. But the fact that this raving hater was Obama's m...
More About: Barack Obama , Uncle

Lost 4.7: Flash Both Ways
2008-03-14 04:06:00
A beautiful, bittersweet episode of Lost tonight, featuring Sun in a flashforward, about seven months into the future, giving birth to her baby. She is definitely one of the Oceanic Six.Jin is rushing to the hospital with a big stuffed panda bear baby present. Sun calls out for him in the delivery room...But Jin is not among the Oceanic Six. What we're seeing here is not Sun and Jin in the same flashforward. Not Jin in a flashforward at all. Jin's in a flashback, from before he and Sun wound up on the island, and the stuffed panda he is bringing is a present from his boss to the ambassador, whose wife is having a baby.This flashback mimicking a flashforward is deftly done - Jin pays a lot of money for the stuffed panda he brings to the hospital, and we think Jin has this money because he's one of the Oceanic Six. But it's his boss's money he's waving around...Jin never got off the island. Sun, accompanied by Hurley, takes her newborn baby to Jin's gravesite. The date ...
More About: Flash

In Treatment 6: Paul's Boat
2008-03-13 03:40:00
Paul continues to be the most effective - offering just right the blend of insight, keen questions, and protecting compassion - to Sophie. This is evidenced by her smashing one of Paul's model boats on his floor, as he probes the likelihood that she was abused. Unlike Paul's unprofessional reaction to hostile actions by Alex, he takes his boat on the floor as an indication that he is finally reaching Sophie.The difference between the professionalism of Paul's responses to Sophie and Laura also continues to be pronounced and powerful in Week 6 of In Treatment . Paul tells Laura he loves her, and stops a micro-inch short of passionately kissing her. We might have expected Paul not even to admit his feelings for Laura - how can that possibly help her as a patient - but he is too far gone, too much in love with Laura, to not express his feelings, at least, verbally. And, besides, this gives us a chance to see Laura's reaction, which may be instructive: she at first doubts what P...
More About: Boat , Michelle Forbes , In Treatment

Robert Heinlein and Barack Obama: The Meaning of Voting
2008-03-12 00:06:00
Jason Rennie interviews me on his SciPhi Show about Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers (also made into a fine movie), and how its concept of "The Franchise" - that only people with military or other "Federal" service should have the right to vote - would work in American democracy today ...Although I admire the social daring of Heinlein's insertion of such a radical concept into a science fiction novel, I strongly disagree with it. In this interview, I outline the progress that America has made in giving greater segments of our population the vote - the middle class in Andrew Jackson's time, African-Americans after the Civil War, and women in the Suffraget movement that did not succeed until after the First World War - and I urge that people far younger than 18 get the vote now.I conclude by citing the success of Barack Obama thus far as an indication of what an open, inclusive voting system can accomplish...Jason Rennie interviews Paul Levinson on The SciPhi Showlisten t...
More About: Meaning , Voting

MSNBC Unfurls Excellent New Lineup - But Why are They Keeping Their Lame "D
2008-03-11 21:39:00
MSNBC announced the following changes in its schedule, to take effect this coming Monday, March 17 - .David Gregory, NBC News' Chief White House Correspondent, will anchor Race for the White House, a new daily show airing from 6-7pm .NBC News' Andrea Mitchell will anchor MSNBC each weekday afternoon from 1-2pm .Countdown with Keith Olbermann, on at 8pm, will now re-air a second time at 10pm, in addition to a third time at 2am. .MSNBC's "doc block" will now air weeknights from 11pm-2am. .Live with Dan Abrams will re-launch as Verdict with Dan Abrams, from 9-10pm. .Tucker Carlson's show is out, but he will continue on MSNBC as Senior Campaign Correspondent. These all look like excellent moves. With the strength of NBC regulars Brian Williams and Tim Russert, along with Tom Brokaw on election nights, MSNBC has the best election coverage in the business. David Gregory joining the weeknight lineup of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Dan Abrams makes a lot of...
More About: Lame , Lineup , Excellent , MSNBC

Eliot Spitzer and The Wire
2008-03-11 03:39:00
I hate to make light of this (actually, I enjoy it), but when I heard today about NY Gov Spitzer being involved in a prostitution ring, in Washington, DC no less, I couldn't help thinking that Lester Freamon became "police" again, and that's what he moved on to...That's whatI thought when I saw the first report on CNN online. But when I further heard that Spitzer got nabbed for this on a wiretap...This may the real life coda - epilogue - of The Wire . The ultimate spill-over into reality...Thanks, HBO, for this extra episode (maybe even a new season)...(Ok, I admit to not liking Spitzer, ever since his unconstitutional payola witch hunt a few years ago ... Ever notice how government officials who yelp the most loudly about morality and victimless crime seem to always be involved in some themselves?)More on The Wire ... The Wire's Back! Review of Season 5 Episode 1 and Episode 2: The Great, Dangling Conversation ... 3. McNulty and Marlo ... 4. One Down ... 5. Media Chasing The...
More About: Eliot , Eliot Spitzer

The Wire Bows Out Gracefully; Kudos to Cast and David Simon, the Charles Di
2008-03-10 04:00:00
I sometimes, often, in fact, think The Wire is the best show ever to have been on television. It's hard to compare to The Sopranos, which was just about one person, really, Tony. The Wire was an ensemble show par excellence, with at least 15 to 20 centrally important players over the past five seasons. You can't compare it at all to Lost, which is in another - fantastic - universe, entirely.The Wire is certainly the best cop show, ever. My previously favorite was Homicide: Life on the Street. David Simon was the brains behind that Baltimore masterpiece, too. And there were lots of other connections - including Clark Johnson, Meldrick in Homicide, Gus in this last season of The Wire.But The Wire was much more than a cop show - in fact, the cops were less than half the story. There was the dock, in Season 2; politics in Season 3 and after; the school in Season 4; and the paper, the media, in this final Season 5. All of these were done superbly - though perhaps the cynical en...
More About: Kudos , Cast , Bows

A Fistful of Favorite Podcast Interviews
2008-03-09 21:38:00
I usually post about the fascinating people I've interviewed on my Light On Light Through podcast, but here's a short list of the some of the interviews conducted with me by brave and erudite podcasters in the past few years ....Jason Rennie interviewed me on December 16, 2006 about science fiction and philosophy on The SciPhi Show.Shaun Farrell interviewed me on March 28, 2007 about science fiction and the academic world on Adventures in Scifi Publishing.Stephen Euin Cobb interviewed me on February 6, 2008 about nanotechnology, SETI, the Fermi Paradox, the probability and impact of our finding another Earth, and more on The Future and You.Maia Whitaker interviewed me on Feburary 26, 2008 about how to promote your writing on the Web, plus we talked a little about Barack Obama on The Knitwitch Zone ...Enjoy ...listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Interviews , Podcast , Favorite

All Hat and No Cattle: Reclaiming A Great Insult
2008-03-09 07:08:00
Hillary Clinton slammed Barack Obama before the Texas primary for being "all hat and no cattle" - or, all talk and no action, someone who put on a good show, talked a good case, but didn't have the goods.It was an empty critique of Obama, and the people of Texas agreed, at least in part, since Obama actually won more delegates in Texas than did Clinton, even though she won the popular vote.But, as an Obama supporter, I don't want my irritation at Hillary's use of this phrase to dilute or distract from what I think is one of the best insults to come down the pike in a long time. Actually, it's been around for a while - there are quotes in the Wiktionary going back to 1980 - but I heard for the first time just a few weeks ago, so I've got to thank Hillary Clinton for that.Now, what I really like about the phrase is how sheer, audacious rhyme makes it shine.After all, although Texans wear big hats and herd cattle, the two don't have much else in common other than their rhyme.But...
More About: Dallas , Hillary Clinton , Great , Insult

Obama Wins Wyoming: Small State, Big Lesson; Plus: Online Petition to the S
2008-03-09 01:21:00
Wyoming is the least populated state in the nation, but Obama 's sweep of Hillary Clinton there - 61% to 38% - carries a big lesson:Obama continues to lead in the delegate count by a nearly unbeatable margin. He actually won more delegates in Texas, and Hillary's victories in Ohio and Rhode Island resulted in a negligible increase in her delegates.So, if we're thinking a dream ticket - who should be in first and who in second place? Shouldn't first place go to the candidate with the largest number of delegates?By what anti-democratic logic would or could the super delegates be induced to support Hillary Clinton instead of Barack Obama ? Why support someone who came in second?=============Plus: One of my best students at Fordham, Mike Plugh, has put up an online petition to the super delegates - do the right, democratic thing, and suppport Obama. Read it, sign it, right here.listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Small , Online , Petition

A Tale of Two Responses to Uncouth Comments: Obama and Clinton
2008-03-08 06:38:00
Americans were treated to a very constructive comparison between the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the past two days, and perhaps some insight into differences in the character of the candidates.Obama aide Samantha Power called Hillary Clinton a "monster" in an interview with The Scotsman - she apologized to Clinton, Obama, and resigned.Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson likened Barack Obama to special prosecutor Kenneth Starr (who obsessively hounded the Clintons in the 1990s), saying "I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president" - not only has he not apologized, but Hillary Clinton first said she had no comment, and later added at a press conference in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, "Well, I think that is a true statement."A classic piece of Clintonian word splicing - I suppose the statement could be interpreted as not saying Obama was like Starr and unfit to be President, but simply saying anyone who ...
More About: Comments , Tale

Proposal to Mayor Bloomberg: Save the Democratic National Committee, Pay fo
2008-03-07 15:26:00
The Democratic National Committee has really made a mess of things. Its response to Michigan and Florida moving their primaries up to dates that threatened a stampede of states all moving their primaries to earlier and earlier dates - a real concern - was to punish the people of Michigan and Florida, the Democratic Party, and indeed the democratic process itself by refusing to count the results of those primaries. The DNC announced the punishment, the candidates didn't campaign in Florida, Barack Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan, and the results of those primaries became indeed invalid.I said back in January, before the Michigan primary, that the DNC's response was stupid, and, now, with the nomination still hotly contested, what the DNC did looks outrightly crazy. Fortunately, both the DNC and the two states are saying they would like to do the primaries over - acceptable under DNC rules - but now there's another problem:Money. Neither the DNC nor Michig...
More About: Proposal , Bloomberg , Michael Bloomberg

Lost 4.6: The True Nature of Ben
2008-03-07 04:23:00
Although the primary character in tonight's episode 4.6 of Lost was Juliet, the person we really learn most about is ... Ben.Ever since Ben was introduced to Lost in Season 2, his goodness and badness - his truest motives - have been in doubt. For the most part, he has seemed no good. He gassed all the Dharma people to death, and killed his father - who may have been a lousy, uncaring, brutal father - but, even so, young Ben killed him pretty coldly. And if Ben hasn't since then outrightly murdered too many other people, he has certainly all too often goaded and played games with their minds, to his benefit and their detriment.Just a few weeks ago, in the powerful Sayid episode, we see Ben at the end perhaps standing up to and coordinating the fight against the real bad guys. Perhaps.And tonight, although all uncertainties are by no means cleared up, we see Ben being pretty despicable.Jealous of Juliet's love for Goodwin, Ben assigns him to infiltrate the Tailees after the cr...
More About: Nature , True