Thinktrain

Dean serves a side of humor with platform

2007-03-02T14:20:00.000-06:00

I am interested in hearing more from Karl Dean, but don't interpret that to mean that he's not a likeable fellow. Maybe he's a little less approachable than David Briley, but he has a funny and self-deprecating sense of humor (another Purcell similarity) that made for some good banter today.

Responding to one question, Dean began to answer by saying, "If I'm mayor." He paused and then corrected himself. "Well, I guess I'm supposed to say, 'When I'm mayor, aren't I?"

When one attendee asked about public transportation, Bruce Barry jumped in to urge Dean to build a subway (an intentionally absurd notion, since Nashville rests on layers of formidable limestone). Dean replied, "No, I want a monorail." He may or may not be a Simpsons fan, but I welcomed a little playful verbal sparring from a candidate for public office. I'm pretty sure that's not in the talking points, but it did earn a few chuckles from the rest of the table.

Another blogger referred to the "other four high profile candidates" in the race (meaning Briley, Clement, Dozier and Gentry, presumably) when asking a question. Dean interrupted to say, "You're confident I'm a high profile candidate?" and laughed. He wasn't being combative, in my opinion. He was having fun. That's refreshing, I think.

Lunch with Dean

2007-03-02T13:38:00.000-06:00

Mayoral candidate Karl Dean hosted a lunch meeting today for area bloggers. About a dozen folks showed up at the Flying Saucer, among them Bruce Barry, Hutchmo, Ned Williams, Nathan Moore and myself. I have lots of notes to review, but I'll offer this brief post in the meantime.

Dean strikes me as a cross between Bill Purcell and Phil Bredesen. As he noted during lunch, Nashville has been blessed to have 16 years of great mayoral leadership under those two leaders, so that's definitely a compliment. (Since they have reportedly struggled to get along at times in the past, I'm not sure how they'd feel about this comparison, but it rang true for me today.)

Dean sounds a little like Purcell when he talks: He has a lot to say, and he did ramble at times. He carefully and thoughtfully weighed his responses to many questions. There is a deliberateness about Dean that reminds me of Purcell. I left with the impression that Dean would not take any issue affecting the city lightly or make any decision without considering its consequences. That's good leadership.

He reminds me of Bredesen because he comes across as intelligent and highly practical. Sure, he mentioned similar lofty ambitions for his leadership vision the way most other candidates do, but I got a strong sense that Dean would focus most on what he could help the city get done. Discussing his experience as Metro law director and as public defender, he couched himself as a problem solver who seeks to get to the heart of an issue and figure out what to do about it. This approach appears to fit with his emphasis on his experience in the executive (as in to execute, to get things done, to do) branch of government as opposed to the legislative area. Dean was sure to point out that three of his opponents, David Briley, Howard Gentry and Buck Dozier, are current council members and that Bob Clement is known best for his time as a congressman.

Describing Dean in this way, I realize that I'd still like to see and learn more about Dean's own voice and personality. Compared with the other major candidates, he entered the race fairly late (in December) and is arguably a lesser known, though respected, community leader. Until recently, Dean has been fairly quiet on the campaign, apparently focusing (quite successfully) on catching up on fundraising since he announced his candidacy later than everyone else.

It's still awfully early in this race, so there's plenty of time remaining for Dean to raise his public profile, but I generally like what I have seen so far and what I heard today. He is an electable candidate in this race, but in my opinion so are three of the other four candidates. (I'm hoping personally that Clement is not, but that's up for the voters to decide, not just me.)

I'll share more about today's discussion and issues that were raised over the next few days. Stay tuned.

Business Week on Gannett approach to Web

2007-03-02T06:29:00.000-06:00

Tennessean senior editor Deborah Fisher used many of Gannett's current buzzwords--such as microzones, pro-am and user-generated content--in her presentation to PRSA Nashville on Tuesday. It should be noted that others are taking note of Gannett's approach to using the Web to adapt and sustain its core newspaper business. Business Week writer Jon Fine had the following to say this week about the company's innovations:

[T]he newspaper chain with the most interesting and coherent approach to rethinking journalism and news-gathering is not the New York Times Co. or the Washington Post Co. ...

By May 1 Gannett will have rolled out to all its papers initiatives enabling readers to interact with each other and assist its journalists. (These approaches also will be launched at Gannett's TV stations.) To describe these efforts, Michael Maness, vice-president of strategic planning and one of the strategy's architects, is eschewing such clumsy industry terms as "user-generated content," opting instead for the more euphonious "pro-am" (as in, professional-amateur) to underscore the blend of reader contributions and traditional reporting. If this succeeds—and early indicators are good—an unlikely company will lead the industry down an unfamiliar but promising path. "What I like about it is that it's not just about saving money, it's about saving journalism," says a reliably revved-up Jeff Jarvis, proprietor of media blog buzzmachine.com.

Some of what Gannett stresses is the kind of Web 101 that local newspapers should have been doing all along. It will ramp up news-breaking efforts on the Web and rethink the product to deliver whatever to whomever on whichever platforms they desire—a phrase so hideously clichéd that most media observers can recite it robotically. Where things get really interesting, and where Gannett leapfrogs others' efforts, is in its pro-am blend. "The pros do the heavy lifting and build the framework and structure," says Maness. "And the audience can come in and fill in" around it.

The whole article is worth a read. If you make it over there, don't miss the comments, where most readers don't share Fine's optimistic take on Gannett's decision. Here's a sampling:

Nickname: drew216

Review: Our small group of newspapers has been accepting and encouraging "citizen journalism" since mid last year. I guess I am surprised that Gannett took so long to figure this out! Citizen Journalism is low cost cpm that is a fantastic opportunity for all newspapers, large and small. We are now able to re-capture the lost franchise of breaking news and leverage it even further. We can create a greater sense of community in our individual markets by involving our readers. Their "content" makes our products/stories more compelling for our customers! I am surprised by the comments by people who simply do not see this huge opportunity. Time to descend from your ivory tower!

Date reviewed: Feb 28, 2007 9:25 PM

Nickname: GannettInsider

Review: Gannett's new initiative, the Information Center, is all about creating more bureaucracy to feed the beast, or the reading audience. They don't care what the quality of journalism is, hell, they don't even hire reporters as they leave, but they're hunting for someone to fill silly-sounding new positions such as the Data Desk Editor and Community Conversations Editor. It's just more of the same with Gannett.

Date reviewed: Feb 20, 2007 1:48 AM

Nickname: newsdude

Review: What you don't know about Gannett's plan: Reporters will be selling news subscriptions and answering delivery complaints while "covering" their communities. That reporters are handing out business cards that solicit reader-submitted photos of dogs and quilts and such to post as "news." That public officials and untrained bloggers are being allowed to post unedited "news" items as daily Web updates. That real reporters' jobs are being cut in favor of Webbies who post this drivel. Ask Fort Myers all about it -- it was all discussed in a company-wide conference call last fall, and is being practiced as we speak. If that's civic journalism, we're all in trouble.

Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2007 7:54 PM

Nickname: posted

Review: Someone has had a sip of the Kool-aid. Gannett does nothing that does not mean the reduction of FTEs (can't even refer to them as people as what is left of their conscience might have a problem with what they do to people's lives.) This time the genius is to supplant paid journalists with unpaid readers. Perhaps the next initiative will be to have businesses sell their ads to themselves or readers deliver their own papers.

Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2007 12:47 PM

Hat tip to Mike P. for pointing me to this article. Thanks, Mike.

Forsberg to stay in Nashville?

2007-03-02T06:25:00.000-06:00

This is sheer speculation, but I sure hope ESPN analyst Terry Frei is right:

Q: Might Peter Forsberg return to Philadelphia?

A: Maybe, because he's been there long enough to hear the argument that many locals prefer Jim's to Geno's (order in English only, please) and Pat's. But I'm in the minority: I think he's going to come around to choosing between re-signing with the Predators, if he's healthy enough and they want him, or going home to Sweden … and staying there.

For the record, Frei, who has written for both Denver newspapers as well, has been pretty fair to the Preds over the years, pointing out attendance issues when necessary but noting successes on and off the ice, too.

Preds attendance soaring since All-Star Break

2007-03-02T05:43:00.000-06:00

The Preds currently have the best record in the NHL, but Nashville has taken a beating this season among hockey writers and fans for not filling seats to support the team.

Since the All-Star Break in late January, the Preds are averaging 16,122 fans per game and have sold out four of their past eight games. This doesn't put the team on par with the nightly capacity crowds in hockey hotbeds such as Toronto, Detroit and Montreal, but it is a major improvement. Fans are supporting this team, and crowds this season (as usual) have been engaged and vocal when it comes to what is taking place on the ice. This is not front-page news in the hockey world, but I'd like to see some of the Preds' harsher critics from traditional hockey circles at least note that the community is filling seats to cheer on the team instead of continuing to pile on based on attendance numbers from earlier in the season. Here are the Preds' figures since the All-Star break (sellouts designated with an asterisk):

Feb. 3 Ducks: 17,113*
Feb. 8 Leafs: 15,018
Feb. 10 Kings: 17,113*
Feb. 14 Sharks: 13,836
Feb. 17 Wild: 17,113*
Feb. 19 Coyotes: 15,862
Feb. 22 Canadiens: 15,808
Feb. 24: Red Wings 17,113*

I'm curious why there has not been much mention of New Jersey's attendance woes. A perennial playoff team during the past decade that is currently right behind the Preds in the overall standings, the Devils rank below Nashville in attendance in a much larger market (Newark, Exit 16W, Northern New Jersey, whatever you choose to call it). Why is Nashville drawing the ire of reporters and fans who consider themselves insiders while New Jersey, a team that would have relocated to Nashville in 1995 if they had not pulled off a Cinderella run to win the Stanley Cup, is not?

Deborah Fisher on The Tennessean's newsroom

2007-03-01T07:13:00.000-06:00

An audience member at Tuesday's PRSA meeting asked Tennessean senior editor Deborah Fisher about how the paper's reporters are responding to all of the changes taking place in print and online. With reporters being asked to post breaking news stories during the day and post blog entries and the paper preparing to shift to an around-the-clock news room and begin training some of its reporters to record video as well as write articles, the workload is changing and increasing quickly for a staff that Fisher acknowledged is not making any major increases to its staff. She also shared her perceptions of how the newsroom is adjusting to what she described as a "somewhat chaotic" process of publishing news both online and in print:

"I don't know that we have gotten a lot of negative responses [from veteran reporters on staff]... When they begin receiving comments and story leads, they see the power of posting online. It helps eliminate the restrictions of the print cycle...

"In terms of breaking news, reporters realize that [online story posting] doesn't take a whole lot away from print reporting. It's also like writing a draft where reporters can crystallize their thoughts. One of the places where we do struggle with online updates is when the reporter is still working a story and needs time to keep following leads and make phone calls to investigate tips. It's more of a distraction than a time issue."

Another attendee asked Fisher about perceptions that few of the paper's reporters either grew up in the city or have a thorough understanding of the local community. Fisher responded:

"Deep community knowledge is really important. We have a lot of staff who have been there a long time. In any market, you're going to have people come in and come out. The Tennessean, in contrast to other papers I've been at, has a large amount of people who have been here a long time...Reporters can come in to a situation and learn the lay of the land. We do a lot to help them know who's who in the community."

The Nashville Scene and others have made an issue in recent years of reporting about increasing frustrations in the newsroom, departures of long-term reporters and a loss of this kind of community knowledge on the paper's staff. It can safely be said, I think, that modern journalism looks very different than it did 10 or 15 years ago, and that the skills required and demands made on reporters are as intense and as varied now perhaps as they have ever been. From what I have witnessed in print and online, it seems that the evolution of The Tennessean is definitely a work-in-progress, but I am hoping that its increasing focus on breaking local news and frequent online updates will ultimately lead to a stronger and more relevant newspaper.

Tennessean will be 24/7 within six months

2007-02-28T09:12:00.000-06:00

Tennessean Senior Editor Deborah Fisher mentioned during her presentation to the Nashville PRSA chapter yesterday that the paper plans to operate a "24/7 newsroom" within six months that will publish local updates to its Web site around the clock.

Currently, the paper publishes about 100 breaking news updates each day beginning at 6 a.m. Fisher's goal is for the site to be "dynamic and refreshing constantly." "Update, update, update is our mantra," she said.

I'm glad to see this move by the paper. As a media junkie, I say the more news, the better, and it's always encouraging to see additional local content arriving online.

Shoot the messenger, not the message

2007-02-28T06:34:00.001-06:00

If you have a problem with Al Gore living in a colossal Belle Meade Mansion and generating high electric bills while traveling the world to discuss the dangers of global warming, that's fine. Whether or not Gore is a hypocrite, we need to be aware of our energy consumption and consider how we can change the way we generate the power we depend on.

As today's Tennessean reports on Gore's MTSU address yesterday, scientists aren't questioning whether we need to change our habits. They're looking for ways to solve the challenges we face:

A 10-year University of California study found that essentially zero percent of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles disagreed that global warming exists, whereas, another study found that 53 percent of mainstream newspaper articles disagreed the global warming premise.

He noted that recently the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth unanimous report calling on world leaders to take action on global warming.

In my opinion, it's not worth abandoning strategies for smarter, greener energy just because Gore may--or may not--be saying, "Do as I say, not as I do."

Sports Illustrated's Farber checks out Preds

2007-02-28T06:07:00.000-06:00

Want to peek inside the Preds' locker room? Sports Illustrated writer Michael Farber has written a great story that includes plenty of details about the team's behind-the-scenes atmosphere:

[Barry] Trotz, the only coach in Predators history, mixes realism with an inveterate optimism. In the days leading to Saturday's game, Predators' coaches were forbidden to bring up their Thursday-night loss to the Montreal Canadiens, in which Nashville squandered three two-goal leads and lost in a shootout. Anyone caught talking about how Nashville had kicked away a precious point would have been expected to contribute to the Negativity Fund -- a so-labeled plastic container in the coaches' office that staff members pay into for spreading bad vibes. On Friday associate coach Brent Peterson wrote energy and patience on a whiteboard as coaching guidelines for practice. Then he began to write NO S-A-R.. before stopping. "How," he asked, "do you spell sarcasm?"

The stakes will be high over the next few weeks as the Preds continue their playoff run, but Farber reveals that the team engages in other matchups with nearly the same intensity:

The most riveting pre-Red Wings activity came on Friday at the clubhouse Ping-Pong table at which Forsberg, who says he was unbeaten during his season and a half with the Flyers, dropped games to winger Martin Erat and to goaltender Tomas Vokoun, before avenging the loss to Vokoun as teammates yelped. When the table tennis ended, hockey practice began: a sprightly, energetic session. No negativity anywhere.

Forsberg may have his hands full on the ping-pong table, but it looks like he's starting to fit in just fine in the locker room and on the ice. I've loved watching this team on the ice since year one in 1998, and it's great to hear a little bit about how things play out away from the rink, too.

New business section for The Tennessean

2007-02-27T14:00:00.000-06:00

Senior editor Deborah Fisher mentioned today during her presentation to the local PRSA chapter that The Tennessean will launch a redesigned business section sometime in March. The section will feature more local content and include regular features such as "How I solved it" for business challenges, "How I started it" for new businesses, more columns by local business people and an increased focus on entrepreneurs.

Alongside this new content, the paper will include "real, practical information" such as tax deadlines and an expanded calendar page with an emphasis on networking events and opportunitities because, as Fisher noted, "Nashville is a heavy networking city."

The section will feature a different "niche" page each day with reporting on the following areas: development, Music Row, real estate, automotive, health care and small business. People in Business, the paper's current weekly business announcements section, will appear on a daily basis corresponding to the day's niche page. Movers and Shakers, which Fisher mentioned as a popular item, will remain on the section's front page.

Fisher hopes that the section will reveal more of the "flavor of Nashville." In my opinion, this is good news for a section that frequently has more stock listings than editorial content. It will hopefully provide increased information about the local business community.

Tennessean's Deborah Fisher discusses News 2.0

2007-02-27T13:21:00.000-06:00

Tennessean senior editor Deborah Fisher spoke to the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America today and addressed the current and future direction of the newspaper. Fisher became senior editor this past December and has been heavily involved in the recent content changes in the print edition and the paper's significant embrace of its Web site and social media in the past several months.

While The Tennessean isn't announcing any major personnel changes or abrupt shifts in its focus, this presentation came in the wake of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's February 21 announcement that it will shift its content for younger readers to the Web and focus its print edition on an older audience. Fisher explained The Tennessean's reasoning behind its changes in content strategy:

"The Tennessean wanted to restructure because the way people get information has changed so much... It's not just the paper reaching people any more ... So many people have moved online. Many use PCs or PDAs to get breaking news online during the day. Our goal is to provide news when they want it and how they want it."

Fisher acknolwedged the organization's concerns about recent downsizing and acquisition trends in the industry and specifically mentioned the AJC's unexpected announcement. As the Poynter Institute's Rick Edmonds recently said about the Atlanta announcement, The Tennessean is yet another paper trying "to find the magic balance between print and online."

While The Tennessean is not abandoning its print edition or altering it on the drastic level that the AJC is proposing, Fisher acknowledged that the paper's print circulation is declining, as it is for nearly all papers across the country, and that online page viewing is booming: "The web is definitely seeing a double-digit increase. It's huge. There has been a phenomenal growth in page views and unique visitors. There's a whole set of metrics that we look at."

In discussing strategy, Fisher returned consistently to variations on the following talking points, including references to "getting information to people in different ways" and "continuing the conversation." These phrases and the messaging below echo the mission and values of The Tennessean's parent company Gannett:

"Everything in the world of journalism eventually comes down to the reporter. Good journalism really does start with the reporter, and it comes down to the reporter's passion for his or her beat. That passion ends up leading to a good story."

When asked, Fisher said that she did not foresee a time when the newspaper would abandon its print edition:

"As long as people want to consume information in different ways, I think there will always be a print product. There are some limitations to the Web. Newspapers will go away when books go away. I think there will be a print edition for a long time. We will have to continue editing it for what people expect. I don't think the print edition will entirely go away."

I will share more details from Fisher's presentation today later this afternoon.

Gore and everyone else: walk your green talk

2007-02-27T07:41:00.000-06:00

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is right to question Al Gore's personal energy consumption in the wake of his well-publicized efforts to raise awareness of global warming. In my opinion, anyone advocating a strong public policy position or philosophy ought to be willing to subject himself or herself to this kind of scrutiny:

[TCPR president Drew Johnson said,]"We went into this just asking the question, 'Is the leader of the environmental movement basically living up to his word? Given that he's a Tennessean, I thought it's a question we should ask."

I'm sure the Gores can do more to save their own little corner of the world, and they should, but it sounds like they are doing a decent amount, despite reports yesterday to the contrary. In addition to voluntarily purchasing blocks of green power from Nashville Electric Service in recent months, the Gores also have done the following, according to The Tennessean's Anne Paine:

They use compact fluorescent light bulbs and are in the midst of a renovation project that includes having solar panels installed on their home to reduce fossil fuel consumption ... Their car? A Lexus hybrid SUV... [They also participate in a process known as carbon emissions offset, which] means figuring out how much carbon is emitted from their power use, and vehicle and plane travel, then paying for projects that will offset that with use of renewable energy, such as solar power."

Could the Gores do more? I'm sure they could, and so could I.

[Asides to TCPR: Thanks for hiring Trent Seibert and keeping him around. How about an RSS feed for your Web site, too?]

MTSU prof: The kids are all right

2007-02-27T07:06:00.000-06:00

According to researchers involved with the latest results in the annual Narcissistic Personality Inventory (link leads to PDF with detailed info), which has published an assessment of college students' sense of self since 1982, today's college students are more self-centered than their predecessors. The experts blame a "self-esteem trend" that began in the 1980s and technology innovations such as MySpace and YouTube.

Maybe they're right, but I wonder how people of all ages would fare on such a study these days. If we are becoming more self-centered--and there's plenty of evidence to support the theory--I wonder whether it has less to do with being in college and more to do with being a 21st-century American. I have a feeling that college students from the 60s, 70s or 80s would answer the survey similiarly if they were exposed to today's me-focused pop culture.

The Tennessean didn't post this Associated Press story online, but it did run it on today's front page and included an interview with MTSU vice president of student affairs Bob Glenn, who has worked on campus for 36 years. He disputes the findings:

"Everybody wants to make out this generation as worse than previous generations ... I don't see this particular group of students as much more narcissistic than those in the 60s, who were engaged in a whole variety of interesting behaviors ... I see a surge in a lot of things that are optimistic ... I see them doing a lot more service activities. I see these students being much more inclined in doing things that have positive impacts on their communities. I don't want to be too quick to label them and hesitate to write them off because of what one group of researchers said."

I'm sure this study is worth noting, but I'm also weighing it with a grain of salt. Why? I remember very well the outcry over my own "Generation X" in the early 90s: We were slackers who were apathetic about everything, and we were going to ruin America. Well, at least that was the most exaggerated of the criticisms leveled against my generation, and in my opinion they've turned out to be wrong.

It seems to me that generations in American society tend to have a natural rivalry that evolves over time, and it's a common pastime for older ones to call out rising successors for their ills. Sure, my generation has its shortcomings, and so do the Boomers and even the Greatest Generation.

There may well be some validity to the study, but I think we'd all be better off looking at how we can change ourselves for the better than trying to nudge our older or younger peers a little further down the generational hill.

Road trip will boost Preds

2007-02-26T10:34:00.000-06:00

I agree with Coach Trotz that the current Preds road trip is likely to only help make Nashville an even better team as it enters the stretch run before the playoffs:

One of the plusses of the Predators' longest road trip of the season — five games over 10 days — is that the team will get some bonding time with recent acquisitions Peter Forsberg and Vitaly Vishnevski. "You can say all you want while you're at home, but you don't bond as well," Predators Coach Barry Trotz said. "Over the next 10 days, we're going to be on the road and it's a bunch of guys together on the road, sort of against the world. We just have to bear down and hopefully pull together."

One benefit of having all eyes on Forsberg since the trade is that Vishnevski has likely been able to integrate with his new team that much more easily. He isn't the one who's every move is being watched, and so far he appears to be fitting in well.

Good timing, Pete

2007-02-26T10:12:00.000-06:00

I was encouraged over the weekend not only by Peter Forsberg's excellent play and game-winning goal against Detroit, but also by reading the following further explanation in The Tennessean about his decision to decline Coach Trotz's request that he participate in the shootout at the end of Thursday night's game with Montreal:

Forsberg explained Friday why he told Trotz he'd prefer not to be one of the top three shootout participants in Thursday's game against Montreal. Forsberg wound up shooting fourth and slipped to the ice before getting off a quality attempt. "To be honest, I don't think I'm the best goal-scorer in the league," Forsberg said. "If you look at the statistics, I've got more (assists) than goals. I think this team has a lot of breakaway guys."

I was admittedly being a little hard on Forsberg, but I suppose that's because of the level of expectations that superstars tend to generate. As I mentioned on Friday, we're all human, even athletes and other people who excel at a high level of performance, but one thing that distinguishes superstars is that they tend to outperform the rest of the field sooner or later and on a regular basis. Two things that distinguish great athletes from great leaders is the ability to acknowledge one's strengths and weaknesses and the ability to see how one's skills can best align with the rest of the team's talents.

Forsberg broke out of what might be considered a mini-slump and recorded his first two points as a Predator as Nashville downed the Red Wings 4-3 in overtime in front of a sellout crowd. Keep in mind that this is the second consecutive week that Forsberg has downed the Red Wings by scoring the clinching goal:

In his final appearance with the Philadelphia Flyers last week, Peter Forsberg scored the game-winning goal in a victory over the Detroit Red Wings. It might not have been a showdown game — the Flyers long had fallen out of playoff contention — but it did provide yet another example of Forsberg sticking it to the best team of the last decade.

Keep in mind that this appeared in an article that ran in Saturday's paper, prior to that night's heroics by Forsberg. I'm not expecting that Forsberg--or any other Pred--will score every game, but I'm glad to see him begin to contribute. I imagine that we'll see a lot more assists, goals and, hopefully, wins in the near future, thanks to Forsberg and the rest of the Preds.

Does Forsberg want to be here?

2007-02-23T09:22:00.000-06:00

It's not really fair to be questioning this so soon after such a huge trade, but last night's game has me wondering a bit. Consider this item from John Glennon's recap of the Preds' 6-5 loss to Montreal last night:

Predators Coach Barry Trotz asked center Peter Forsberg whether he wanted to be one of the top three shootout participants against the Canadiens, but Forsberg declined."He said he didn't want to go as one of the first three,'' Trotz said. "He just said it wasn't something he didn't feel real strong about, so I listened to him.''Forsberg was the fourth Predators shooter, but slipped as he neared the Montreal crease and failed to get off a quality attempt.

Peter Forsberg is reportedly a humble locker-room leader, so maybe he's just deferring to the team's established leaders. I attended the game last night, and it was a little disconcerting to learn after the fact that Forsberg turned down Coach Trotz's first request to participate in the shootout. Putting him on the ice in the sudden-death round with the game on the line added even more pressure, and even NHL superstars are human and can't make a spectacular play every time.

The trade is already paying dividends in the stands and around the city, and the team can afford the steep price it paid because it didn't require a big departure from the current roster. There are rumblings around the league that Forsberg may already have it in mind to return to Philadelphia in the offseason, but some of those rumors are from Flyers fans who are disappointed about an unexpectedly awful season for their favorite team.

Forsberg has made no promises to the Preds, but he did waive a no-trade clause in his contract to allow the deal to happen. He was serving as Philadelphia's captain, though, and perhaps he sees this move as a way to help the Flyers' future because he has been limited so far this season for them on the ice.

I hope he will at least give Nashville the honor of keeping an open mind about our team and our community. This could very well be a great place for him to earn another championship, whether this year or thereafter, and it could be a great and welcoming place for him to complete his career, too.

Playing in two quick home games after arriving as the savior via a blockbuster trade will put pressure on anyone, even a premier athlete. The long road trip that starts next week will be a big challenge for the team, but I have a feeling it will be a very good thing for Forsberg's Predators tenure.

Good thoughts from Garrigan on English-first

2007-02-22T07:20:00.000-06:00

As happens more often than not, I agree with Liz and her ode to Councilman Eric Crafton in this week's Scene:

We do conduct our business in English and always have. Not once, as editor of a newspaper that makes frequent requests for public information—and roots around daily in the recesses of government offices for documents and other city goings-on—have we encountered an arrest record, a legal filing, a personnel file, an interview with a bureaucrat, or any other manifestation of municipal business in a non-English format. Well, except for the usual Metro-mangling of the English language—e.g., “let me have him to call you,” “you can quote me per beta,” or the classic plea for secrecy, “I need this to be unanimous.” (And there’s always the Metro Council favorite: “I have a qwerstion….”) ...

That said, you have accomplished wonders in uniting some of the city’s most fragmented factions. There could not be a more widely assorted, contradictory cast of characters who find your intention repulsive. The Scene and Bishop David Choby…on the same side? Liberadio! and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce? Bizpigs and African American clergy? The list of multifarious hand-holders who have come together for what may be the first and last time goes on and on—a testament to how spurious and ill-motivated your scheme truly is ...

Here you are, assuming that others who find themselves needing to learn a new language don’t have the same willingness and eagerness you did. It’s unfounded. No doubt when you were in Japan you tried to speak the language the best you could, but you probably needed a little sympathetic assistance from time to time—a stranger recognizing your effort, and reaching to meet you halfway. That’s all your mob of critics is saying.
Instead, by saying you’ll back the effort to put the measure on the August ballot, you’re assuming the worst of people in (or off) the same boat. And by trying to create a law where none is required, you’re diluting the good nature of Nashville’s citizens.

The last point here is the one that bugs me the most. This is a great place to live with a lot of kind-hearted people in it. We're consistently named the nation's friendliest city (although occasionally not to the homeless), and there are wonderful and amazing things taking place here as people continue to discover and explore Nashville. Yes, we have problems, but our ability to communicate in English is not one of them. How does this help us when we have bigger problems, including Dickerson Pike, to tackle?

Mercy, not sacrifice

2007-02-22T07:08:00.000-06:00

Sam and Dixon 's idea is catching on, judging from this morning's Tennessean.

Instead of giving up soda, chocolate or swearing for Lent, some Midstate Christians are planning to volunteer at senior centers, spend five-minutes-a-day on social activism or pledge to crush their used Starbucks coffee cups to be more ecologically conscious...

The Rev. Thomas Hotchkiss of Church of Advent Episcopal is encouraging congregation members to combine the act of personal penance with charity work. "Giving up chocolate is something beneficial to oneself, which may OK, but taking all the money that everyone spends on candy bars and sending it to relief of children in Northern Uganda has an impact," he said. "That's what we're trying to get people to think on."

Someone who woke up very early on the wrong side of the bed disagrees:

Let me get this str8 (pun intended)... For 40 days, which ends at Easter, these people are no longer burdened with denying themselves chocolate (or other self indulgences), lying, swearing, buying soda, leaving a tip, recycling or anything else which would make them a 'better' christian? So on Easter Sunday, praise the lord, they can now curse, lie, eat diet cokes, leave no tips etc? No wonder this is their biggest holiday!

Frankly, I doubt Jesus is impressed. If I were Lord and Savior, I sure wouldn't be.

What a wretched religion. What a trite concept and practice...giving up something for 40 days which one shouldn't be doing anyway. If y'all were serious about this, I propose something different...instead of 40 days, the following should give up or practice the following forever:

-Catholic Priests should give up molesting children forever, and confess to law enforcement about the ones they did abuse. Catholic Bishops shouldn't cover things up.

-Baptists should go to a gay bar and embrace every gay guy there, not as an abomination, but as another one of God's creations.

Eh, nevermind, these things ain't gonna happen. In Jesus name we burp, and hold off on self-indulgence, swearing, lying and not-tipping until Easter morning, amen.

I can't argue with the sentiment, only the presentation. Regardless, Jesus is quoted in the Bible as saying "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." I have no issue with the traditional practice of Lent, observed sincerely, but I think this alternative take on 40 days better matches the God's hope for us.

Digital Camera lust

2007-02-22T06:57:00.000-06:00

Digital cameras keep getting smaller, better and cheaper. Canon is introducing the Powershot SD-1000 (two designs above), and it is more than double the megapixels (7.1), half the width and a third of the weight of the still great Powershot S230 I bought in 2002. It has a bigger LCD viewscreen on the back, too. At $300, it's also $100 cheaper than the S230 was when I bought it. Wow. [Source: Engadget]

Dickerson Pike: The name isn't the problem

2007-02-22T06:39:00.000-06:00

Tennessean reporter Kate Howard is correct that this is what I think of when I hear the words "Dickerson Pike:"

Let’s do some word association. First thing you think of when I say… Dickerson Pike. Was it crime? Prostitutes? Drug dealers, or spray painting graffiti artists? If it was, you might understand why Metro City Council members want to give it a new moniker.

The city is considering a resolution telling the world they to be on “Skyline Boulevard” next time they’re riding down between Spring Street and Trinity Lane. The General Assembly would have to approve the change for the state route.

In my opinion, this is a shortsighted mistake that will only serve as a quick fix to a major issue. How long do you really think it will take until people realize that Skyline Boulevard equals Dickerson Pike?

The name isn't the problem: The activity on that street is. I hope the council will stop spending time on another resolution that has no practical value and look for real solutions that will help permanently revitalize a blighted and dangerous part of our city. How about expanding the East Police Precinct and hiring more officers to work there? How about adding better and more streetlights? How about dedicating funds toward building future city agency locations there? How about providing incentives for businesses to relocate there?

Maybe none of these ideas make sense for Dickerson Pike. Maybe some of them do. Unless we keep thinking about how to improve the reality of Dickerson Pike and stop worrying about what to call it, though, it won't be long until we read about the next prostitution sting or drug bust on Skyline Boulevard.

Appearances, plural, of impropriety

2007-02-21T10:43:00.000-06:00

In my opinion, this is the risk Nashville runs if it elects a career politician, such as Bob Clement, as mayor this fall. Nashville has been fortunate since Bill Boner left office in 1991 to have chief executives in office who, regardless of one's opinions on their initiatives and decisions, have generally gone out of their way to avoid controversy and the appearance of impropriety.

To be fair, Clement is probably known more for being bland than for being scandal-ridden, but hints of impropriety and corruption even prior to taking office are not encouraging signs. Let me say in alluding to Boner that Clement isn't likely to embarrass us on national television by playing harmonica with his mistress, but I still think his election would be a step backward, not forward for the city.

This also is not the kind of availability and responsiveness that, in my opinion, we need out of a future mayor: "Clement did not return calls for comment Tuesday."

Larry Woods, Clement's campaign manager, did respond when contacted by the City Paper: "There’s absolutely no involvement of those PACs on any level in the Clement campaign. They have not given us a dime and are not going to give us a dime."

In today's story, The City Paper also cited Woods' and Clement's explanations last July regarding a related incident:

“But Bob’s got the highest ethical standards of any public official I’ve ever worked with and rather than have questions about it, he wants to meet those high ethical standards,” Woods added. “And so that’s what the campaign’s doing.”

In a statement last summer, Clement said he believed the donations were legitimate.

“While I have been assured and advised that these committee donations are appropriate and proper, I think it is important for those of us who are privileged to seek and to hold public office to avoid even the appearance of anything that is less than the highest moral, ethical and legal standards,” Clement said.

This is one "appearance" that has not been avoided. Maybe this is all much ado about nothing, but I'm not hearing anything here that makes me think that Clement is the best candidate out of a crowded field to be our next mayor. Better and more informed takes on this issue are available here, here and here. Thanks to Kleinheider for raising awareness of this development.

Touche, Erik Cole

2007-02-21T07:18:00.000-06:00

Hats off to Council member Erik Cole for his motion at the council meeting last night, as reported in today's City Paper:

District 7 Council member Erik Cole, who last week voted against the English First bill, motioned for the council to override Purcell’s veto. On a vote, the motion failed 12 – 14, with four members abstaining. The bill’s original sponsor, 22nd District representative Eric Crafton, made an immediate motion to reconsider. His motion was denied by the Council Chairman, Vice Mayor Howard Gentry.

Thanks to Vice Mayor Gentry for preventing Council member Crafton from avoiding the vote, too. The Tennessean reported Cole's reasoning for the motion, and I fully agree: “The intent was to dispatch with the discussion,” Cole said. “This has been a purely political exercise, and the citizens of Nashville are ready to move on to more important matters.”

Please let this go, Councilman Crafton. In my opinion, you are wasting our time and our money.

Titans' Jones has a decision to make

2007-02-21T07:05:00.000-06:00

If this kind of news is going to go away, Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones is going to have to decide that he wants to stay away from trouble more than he wants to party:

The aftermath of a weekend in Las Vegas is ugly: three people shot at a strip club, with one still in critical condition. A combination of celebrities with money and strippers fighting over it started a melee that led to the bloody scene. It happened Monday at 5 a.m. at Minxx Gentleman's Club off the Vegas strip.

Pacman Jones was in the middle of it all, though on Tuesday his lawyer [Worrick Robinson] reiterated that the Titans cornerback is not a suspect ... "[Las Vegas police Sergeant Jon Sott] told me he was really disgusted at the way there were attempts to implicate Pacman," Robinson said. "But they said again he is not a suspect, and they don't see anything changing. He said they have a description but it's not Pacman. … I think this chapter is close to being closed..."
After a judge dismissed a case against him earlier this month, Jones said he had learned his lesson and would try and do a better job of picking his spots to hang out. [emphasis added] "Maybe I'll chill out as a jazz bar or something with some older folks,'' he said. As for what Jones took out of Monday morning's incident, Robinson said: "It scared him. Pacman said he was scared and he'll tell you he heard the gunshots and they stepped it up and got out of there. I think this is pretty much behind him now, but yeah, it scared him.''

I'm not convinced yet that this incident or ongoing trouble is "behind" Jones. The problem, in my opinion, is that trouble continues to be "in front" of him. When you are trying to overcome negative public opinion, being confirmed as a non-suspect is not enough.

Gail is right

2007-02-21T06:52:00.000-06:00

Tennessean columnist Gail Kerr applauds Mayor Purcell for his recent veto of the English-first bill in this morning's paper.

"I have never been more proud to be a Nashvillian and to call Bill Purcell my town's mayor than I have been this past week. Well done, sir, well done, indeed."

I wholeheartedly agree. Despite Councilman Eric Crafton's plans to continue his quest for this legislation with a public referendum, I think Purcell's veto was a noble action in the best interest of our city. Thanks again, Bill.

Tennessean wants to air your dirty, er, jewelry

2007-02-20T14:44:00.000-06:00

Yikes. This is not why I left my ring on the bathroom shelf this morning:

It’s over. Now, what will you do with that ring? What did you do with your wedding ring or engagement ring once you finally broke up for good? Share you story with our readers. E-mail your story, in 100 words or less, to living@tennessean.com. Please put ‘ring’ in the subject line, and include your name, hometown and daytime phone number.

Maybe Ms. Lopez did not want her class ring back after all. ;)

Lights out Down Under

2007-02-20T13:13:00.000-06:00

Well, more accurately, the bulbs are on the way out Down Under. After meeting with mayoral candidate David Briley, who is advocating for a greener city government, yesterday, I think this might be a noble goal to add to Nashville's future to-do list:

While some US cities like Raleigh are already planning steps to cut back on energy wastes by converting to more efficient lighting systems, it looks like the entire continent of Australia could be following suit. Claiming to be the "world's first" national government to phase out incandescent light bulbs in favor of the more "fuel-efficient, compact fluorescent bulb," environment minister Malcolm Turnbull is hoping to "cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by four million metric tonnes a year by 2015." Citing the "climate changes" the world is facing as a "global challenge," Turnbell also urged other nations to follow suit in making a difference, but didn't exactly open up his personal wallet to stock our households with those uber-pricey bulbs. Interestingly, some environmentalists feel that the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions come from government and business-related activities, which should presumably take priority over swapping out a country's light bulbs.

I also found it interesting that the article makes the point about governments needing to lower their greenhouse gas emissions because Briley, as Kleinheider pointed out yesterday, make the point that governments are often behind the private sector these days when it comes to environmentally friendly practices. (By the way, there are much cheaper options for green bulbs out there than the $65 LED versions Engagdet mentions above.)

Lost and Found: Global Edition

2007-02-20T12:13:00.000-06:00

Is this a bad time to mention that I left my wedding ring on a shelf in my bathroom this morning? It's been bugging me because I can feel it "missing," but now I'm especially interested in returning it to my finger ASAP after reading this amazing CNN story:

A college ring lost more than 20 years ago by a former undercover officer for the CIA has been found in an underwater cave off the coast of Africa. Steve Ruic, a writer on staff at Notre Dame College [in Ohio], received an e-mail about two weeks ago from a professional diver from Germany. Wilfried Thiesen wrote that he had found a class ring bearing the college's name while diving off Mauritius.
The ring was engraved with the year '76. The ring was missing the thin portion on the underside that ordinarily carries its owner's name. Ruic publicized the discovery in both an e-mail to college staff and a newsletter to alumni, but no one came forward to claim it. Then, while interviewing a member of the class of 1976 for an unrelated alumni magazine story, Ruic asked Dr. Maryellen Amato Stratmann if she'd ever been to Mauritius.
"I couldn't believe it," Ruic said. "She said, 'No, but Clare Cavoli Lopez has."'

Sure enough, it turned out to be Ms. Lopez' long-lost ring. I experienced a more believable, less astounding version of this story while I was in college. I discovered while home here in Nashville one summer that my missing high school ring had been found in a softball glove at my church gym. I'd borrowed a glove from someone the summer after I graduated in 1991 and left the ring inside accidentally. Nearly four years later, the ring turned up. I can't claim that any strangers tracked me down, and the ring barely crossed Davidson County, much less an ocean, but I was still pretty amazed to find it.

When it comes to my wedding ring, I'm likely to be in sight of my bathroom shelf a little sooner than my next (and first) trip to Mauritius, but I'll still be heading straight there after work. Gulp. [Image: AP via CNN.com]

Lunch with Briley

2007-02-19T14:55:00.000-06:00

It's been a good week. First off, my wife and I were seated next to Mayor Purcell for our Valentine's Day dinner on Wednesday, and today I participated in a lunch along with several other local bloggers hosted by mayoral candidate David Briley. Even better, unlike Purcell, Briley and I actually had a conversation while I was there.

My general impressions were that Briley is a well-spoken, open-minded person who would like to make Nashville a better place to live. I haven't made up my mind yet, but he appears to be someone I could vote for. At the very least, I don't think I would be upset to see him serve as mayor, and that's not insignificant with five months or so still remaining in the race. (In other words, that's a compliment with so much campaigning left to go.)

Thanks, Sean, for setting this up, and to everyone else for participating (Brittney Gilbert, Adam Kleinheider, Sarah Moore, Ned Williams and John of Salem's Lots). Here are some collected thoughts from today's discussion, which I found to be respectful and good-natured throughout despite a wide variety of thoughts and opinions on the issues:

Regarding fellow progressive mayoral candidate Karl Dean, Briley said, "Karl Dean is a friend of mine, and I have nothing negative to say about him." He did go on to say that he considers himself "better prepared after the past [nearly] eight years on the council" to serve as mayor, citing "broader experience" with budgeting, tax concerns, legislation, juvenile justice, crime and education compared to Dean's fairly targeted tenure as the city's director of law and as an adjunct professor of law at Vanderbilt.

When asked how to support Nashville's improving but still ailing public schools, Briley quoted Lamar Alexander's three keys to a successful school system: A good prinicipal, good teachers and good parents. He emphasized that involvement by parents is a major deficit right now and pledged to offer "unprecedented support" to encourage involvement by parents and by other role models. According to him, where our schools struggle most is in middle school. We do a decent job in elementary and high school, he argued, but not nearly as well for grades five through eight. Briley promised to get "every possible organization engaged in middle schools to get students through high schools in four years." He also noted that 10,000 young adults ages 16 to 24 in Nashville are responsible for 80 percent of our crimes, and that taking measures now to reach out to struggling students may help change this.

Briley acknowledged that reforming an organization large enough to serve 70,000 students will take some work. At the same time, he said that the school system "can't be one size fits all" and that it must be able to adapt to meet the needs of a diverse body of students. He emphasized the need for greater parental choice in the school system, stopping short of widespread adoption of charter schools but still acknowledging that parents are choosing now, for example, by moving to satellite counties when their children lose out in the lottery for magnet school slots.

Briley did say that he would like to see a "more objective" method for selecting charter schools and that the current system, where the school board has the primary say, is like "asking Wal-Mart to decide about putting a Target nearby." He would also like to provide more choice for parents within the public school system by allowing different categories of schools and granting parents the option to choose among them: He mentioned schools with uniforms, single-sex schools and Montessori schools as possible options.

When asked specifically about the fact that he did not vote in the final tally for the Metro Council's recent and controversial English-first bill, Briley explained that he voted against the bill on its second reading and had "nothing to gain by flip-flopping on the final vote." Even though he stepped out during debate for the legitimate reason of checking on his children by cell phone, he acknowledged that it was "a mistake on my part" and "I would have voted against it." He also claimed that he would have vetoed the bill, as did Mayor Purcell, if he had been mayor when it passed the council.

Explaining his stance on what he described as a merely "symbolic" bill," Briley noted that Nashville is "not a homogenous place" and that legal immigrants are "here to stay whether we like it or not." "We can't as a community act in a way that pushes everyone into a corner by label," he said. "We must empower immigrant communities to be a part of the culture." Briley also said that the bill "does zero legally" and went on to say that Nashville is "an inclusive city where everyone is expected to conduct themselves appropriately."

Philosophically speaking, I have the impression that Briley and I are in the same ballpark of many of the major issues. I did not have the impression during lunch that he ducked any questions, even tougher ones, but I will say that he has his talking points down pat. He did a good job of staying on his message without straying into territory that he didn't want to address, such as whether his tenure on the council would make him more or less effective as mayor. On that issue, he answered by saying, "It's up to the mayor to develop leadership in the council and to allow proactive, intelligent leaders [within the council] to raise issues ... Changing term limits alone won't solve the council's recent problems."

I'll close with what I thought was a genuine and respectable statement by Briley that I would say sums up my impressions following lunch: "I won't pretend to have all of the answers, but I will open up the doors for those who do." Thanks, David, for inviting a few of us in the blogosphere to sit down with you and for letting us fire away today.

Dinner with Bill

2007-02-15T07:46:00.000-06:00

I had dinner with Bill Purcell for Valentine's Day last night. OK, well, not exactly, but he did sit about four feet from my wife and me for about two hours yesterday evening. We had reservations at 6:30 at Eastland Cafe (which was excellent, by the way) and sat down at a cozy and candlelit little table for two. (We were about where the bald waiter is standing in the above stock photo from the Eastland Web site.)

As soon as we sat down, a friend of mine said my name and said hello. She was sitting at the table on the far side of the mayor from us, not that we had even noticed that his honor was in the room at that point. After thirty seconds or so of conversation across the mayor's table with my friend, I sat down and began looking at the menu. Sure enough, Eastland Cafe has a beautiful set of mirrors at about eye level running the length of one wall, and there was Bill in the reflection right above my wife's shoulder.

Unless I someday sit down across from Bono, I'm going to continue to try to not be "that fan" or "that guy." You know, the one who makes an ass of himself by fawning all over a public figure. Granted, our mayor is a bit more local a celebrity than, say, a philanthropic rock-star who has won multiple Grammys and has been named Time's Man of the Year, but it was still an awfully fun surprise. I managed to (hopefully) subtly steer my wife's gaze in the mayor's direction with my own eyes, and we did our best the rest of the evening to leave him alone.

I'm happy to report that it was the mayor, not me, who broke out his Blackberry during dinner to check e-mail, though my wife notes that, as mayor, he stood a lot better chance of getting away with that on Valentine's Day than I did. (I kept my Treo in my pocket the whole time.) It should also be noted, for the record, that as far as I could tell, the mayor spoke almost entirely in English the entire evening. Then again, there were several French and Italian words on the menu, so I'm not sure whether Bill ordered by pointing at the menu or if he embraced his recent veto by pronouncing every single word. I hope it was the latter.

AJC notices, applauds Purcell's veto

2007-02-14T09:06:00.000-06:00

Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker has a great column in today's paper regarding Mayor Purcell's veto of the Metro Council's English-first bill:

Profiles in political courage are rare, indeed, but there's an early contender for the awards Caroline Kennedy hands out every May: Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell. On Monday, defying the xenophobes, know-nothings and nativists, Purcell vetoed a local ordinance that would have enshrined "English-only" as official city policy and dictated that virtually all government communications be in English.

"This ordinance does not reflect who we are in Nashville," the mayor said at a press conference. Wow. Rather than taking the easy path to cheap acclaim, Purcell took the high but rocky road of leadership. Will his gesture be widely emulated? Probably not. Politics is too much about popularity, and Purcell's stand against the nativism that has taken hold among so many Americans certainly won't be popular.

I have no issue with continuing to monitor how our country is changing as new residents arrive and begin to contribute to our culture, but I do have a problem with passing legislation that accomplishes little except increasing divisiveness, which is one thing we don't need to encourage. Tucker goes on to note that this is not the first time that xenophobia has been an active force in American politics:

Some demographers believe that widespread access to TV and the Internet is helping current immigrants learn English faster than immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The immigrants of yesteryear — Italians, Germans, Poles — often lived in contained neighborhoods where granddad and grandma never learned English. And they, too, were resented by WASPy native-born Americans who thought they'd ruin the country. They didn't. Neither will the current crop of immigrants. We need more courageous politicians such as Purcell to say so.

Some pundits argue convincingly these days that media, technology and industry together have made our country more homogeneous, not less so. The regional differences that used to distinguish one part of the country are not as pronounced as they once were. That sounds a lot like a melting pot to me, and I see no problem with celebrating the unique elements of our culture while welcoming new arrivals. Thanks again, Bill. Your actions on Monday are already paying dividends.

Right on, Bill and Phil

2007-02-13T15:59:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful to see that Governor Phil Bredesen has publicly praised Mayor Bill Purcell's decision to veto the Metro Council's much-debated "English-First" bill today. As the City Paper has quickly reported, Bredesen called the veto the "right thing to do:"

I think a lot of that stuff has way too much of a posturing aspect about it for my taste... I always thought that English-only stuff was kind of a very un-American way of going at things... I think this has always been, at its best, an open and accessible country that values everyone who lives here.

There's no denying, as Councilman and bill sponsor Eric Crafton has mentioned, that there is significant public opinion in favor of this bill. Illegal immigration has been a major point of discussion over the past year locally and nationally. I personally oppose this legislation because I think it's small-minded and a significant waste of time when the council would be better suited addressing issues that impact a larger share of its constituents. I also believe that this bill does very little in terms of practical changes for city communications, and I'm left to wonder what allowing it to pass really accomplishes other than subjecting the city to the possibility of future lawsuits when the bill eventually gets in the way of delivery of legitimate city services.

Thank you, Mayor Purcell, for taking this stand. Thank you, Governor Bredesen, for shedding additional light on what in my opinion is a very sound decision by the mayor. It's no secret that Bredesen and Purcell haven't always been able to agree, but I respect both men for taking firm action in this instance. I am much prouder of our city and our state today than I was last Tuesday when this measure passed the council. To the 14 council members who voted against the bill when it passed, thank you for voting as you did. Please remain strong in your commitment to a more welcoming and diverse community when this legislation is addressed again next Tuesday.

Karl Dean has landed!

2007-02-09T10:09:00.000-06:00

Mayoral candidate Karl Dean has launched a Web site for his campaign. I've mentioned more than once that Dean was the lone major candidate lacking a presence on the Internet, and that is no longer the case.

I've taken a short glance, and in my opinion this is a useful and aesthetically sound site. It appears to have been reasonably well-organized and contains timely, relevant information, including brief information about Dean's platform, a short bio, a snazzy photo gallery, recent mayoral news from outside sources (a nice touch) and a YouTube video embedded on the front page of Dean's campaign announcement from December.

Dean included links for Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn (though the latter two are inactive as of this morning), so my take is that he or someone on his staff "gets it" when it comes to including the Web in his campaign approach. As Kleinheider and others have recently noted, the Internet won't win this campaign, but it can't help but raise visibility.

Well done so far, Karl. I'm especially pleased to see a lack of "under construction" verbiage on any pages, and I hope your staff will follow this initial entry into cyberspace with frequent updates.

Dude, college is next year

2007-01-31T06:44:00.000-06:00

Five or ten years ago, Taylor Killian would just be a really foolish high-school senior. Today, he's enjoying his 15 minutes of fame across the country and overseas as far away as Germany:

A Westerville North High School student who stripped naked, lubed his body in oil and ran amok through the school commons during lunch yesterday was arrested after police twice zapped him with a Taser. "It just seemed like a good idea at the time," Taylor C. Killian, 18, told police later, said Westerville Lt. John Petrozzi. It was right about noon when a clothed Killian, who made his school's honor roll in each of three grading periods during the 2005-06 school year, strolled into a bathroom near the crowded commons.

In the past, this prank would have likely resulted in a local newspaper story, a local TV story or two, maybe an AP brief in other newspapers and, if Taylor were lucky, space in an upcoming installment of News of the Weird. Now, it means that his police report is online, anyone can see a live local TV news story about the incident, the local paper's article is online complete with more than 30 comments (as of 7 a.m. Central time), 1,200 people have starred the incident on Digg.com, and we know that Taylor really likes geeking out with his Xbox.

I have a feeling that all of this makes the whole thing more rewarding, somehow, for Taylor, but probably not for his parents. Yikes.

If Karl Dean can keep this pace up...

2007-01-29T14:25:00.000-06:00

... he'll have $5,182,000 by Nashville's election day (August 2, 2007). The City Paper just broke the following news about Dean's fundraising success on the campaign trail:

Mayoral candidate Karl Dean, who served as director of the Metro Law Department until January 9, raised $156,450 for his campaign between his departure from the department and mid-January, his campaign said today.

As of mid-January, Dean had $151,448 still on hand. That hopefully means he spent $5,002 on developing a visually pleasing and informative Web site, which his campaign continues to lack at present. Dean's balance is within $80,000 or so of Buck Dozier, who has been raising funds since January 2006. While this may be apples-to-oranges considering that the election is much closer now than when Dozier entered the race, Dean raised more money this month than Dozier did in the last six months of 2006. At the very least, this leaves me curious to see where the other candidates, particularly David Briley, weigh in as the fundraising deadline (Jan. 31) nears.

Let's make this history

2007-01-26T17:47:00.000-06:00

Despite all of our complaints and our differences in the United States, we are among the most fortunate people on the planet today. We are among the most fortunate people who have ever lived. I mean all of that to say that, myself included, we are all guilty of taking our welfare and our blessings for granted. Reading a story like this one from CNN reminds me just how much we have to be thankful for and how horrible conditions are for many people in the world even now:

Four Papua New Guinea women, believed by fellow villagers to have used sorcery to cause a fatal road crash, were tortured with hot metal rods to confess, then murdered and buried standing up in a pit, said police. The National newspaper said on Wednesday that police had only just uncovered the grisly murders, which occurred last October near the town of Goroka in the jungle-clad highlands some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, Port Moresby. Black magic is widespread in the South Pacific nation where most of the 5.1 million population live subsistence lives. Women suspected of being witches are often hung or burned to death.

I have nothing but sympathy for these women and their families. The idea of living in a culture that would condone this kind of atrocity is so foreign from what the rest of us experience each day that I really can't imagine waking up to find myself in their country. At the same time, this level of thinking is where we as Americans existed a few centuries earlier, and we would have burned or drowned innocent people in similar circumstances. I'm reminded again of the U2 song, "Crumbs From Your Table:"

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die

This will never be a perfect world, but it will be that much closer when horrible actions like this no longer take place. I'm relieved only that this kind of tragedy is uncommon enough, at least on our side of the world, to qualify as news. Here's hoping that it qualifies only as history someday soon.

Show us the money

2007-01-25T15:43:00.000-06:00

NashvillePost.com is reporting that mayoral candidate Buck Dozier has officially disclosed his campaign fundraising as required by election law:

In the last fundraising quarter, Dozier raised $102,734, bringing his campaign total to $319,300 thus far. Dozier also report that he presently has $228,000 in cash on hand.

Other mayoral candidates that will be filing by the end of the month are At-large Councilman David Briley, former Congressman Bob Clement, former Metro Law Director Karl Dean, businessman Kenneth Eaton, Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, and community activist Dave Pelton.

That's a significant war chest for a campaign with a full roster of candidates. I am very curious to see how Bob Clement (whom some see as the early frontrunner) and Howard Gentry (whom some are concerned will struggle to raise enough money to remain competitive) report. They are required to do so by January 31. I'm especially curious to see how the two progressive candidates, David Briley and Karl Dean, stack up compared to each other and to the rest of the field.

How you know when you like your pet a little too much

2007-01-25T13:04:00.000-06:00

If for no other reason than the resulting back problems, this wearable dog house sure seems like a bad idea to me:

Hey, feeling a bit lonely, need some attention? Well you'll get all the attention you need when you walk through any public place sporting the new, uber attractive Wearable Dog House! It's designed so you can bring your pet to any function and enjoy your dog's company while keeping both hands free for.... whatever. The inventor suggests the WDH's air permeable construction will allow Benji "to view outside events and experience the textures of the outdoors in safety and comfort". And for your own comfort, we're hoping it has an absorbent bottom for when Benji gets all excited and springs a leak.

There are plenty of other reasons why this is just bizarre, even though it is reportedly an authentic patent illustration.

Garrigan (n.): Well-reasoned editorial

2007-01-24T14:52:00.000-06:00

Thanks also to Garrigan and the Scene for reviving her weekly editorial. Yes, it’s been adapted into a column headlined “Garrigan” apparently because Scene corporate owner the Village Voice has a no-editorial policy, but it’s still the same good read that is usually my first stop in each week’s issue. Garrigan is a knowledgeable and convincing writer, one who is married to likely incoming deputy mayor Curt Garrigan. It will be a shame if Garrigan (Liz) has to curtail her city politics coverage when her husband assumes the post. Granted, Liz is reportedly expecting soon, so readers can likely anticipate at least a temporary hiatus one way or another.

Vote for mayor like it's 1999

2007-01-24T14:50:00.000-06:00

Update: Liz Garrigan's column referenced below is now online.

I’m hoping Nashville Scene editor Liz Garrigan is right in the remarks she wrote for this week’s issue (not online yet). Attempting to forecast the upcoming mayoral race, Garrigan compares Bob Clement in 2007 to Dick Fulton in 1999. Fulton served as Nashville’s mayor from 1975 to 1987 and continues to be a respected figure in the community. Seeking to return to the office twelve years later, Fulton emerged as the frontrunner based on name recognition before placing a distant second to Bill Purcell on Election Day. As Garrigan notes, he humbly conceded the race even though he qualified for a runoff because Purcell was the clear, though not majority, choice of the electorate.

Clement, a career politician looking to make a comeback, may well be in Fulton’s shoes as the next election inches closer. I’ve made it clear in previous posts that I consider Clement – along with Buck Dozier and Howard Gentry – to be less-than-appealing options for the city’s next leader. Garrigan agrees:

Bob Clement is this year’s version of Dick Fulton – a man who has little vision for a city that has changed dramatically over the last decade or two, someone who’s already had a full political career (less distinguished than Fulton’s was, it would be fair to say) and the kind of not-so-fresh candidate we predict will hide behind meaningless press releases and innocuous appearances, instead handling questions in writing rather than handling tough questions live, the way he responded to inquiries from The Nashville Business Journal at the end of the year.

Garrigan is calling for Dozier to face David Briley or Karl Dean (who continues to decline to launch a Web site) in a runoff where “the voters couldn’t have a starker contrast in candidates.” I’m hoping she’s right, and I hope Briley or Dean emerge as Nashville’s next mayor. In the meantime, I hope the two of them will sit down for coffee and figure out which one of them has the better shot at winning and which one ought to run for vice-mayor instead. [Aside to both: I will likely vote for either of you compared to the field, so please stop dividing the progressive vote.]

Pick up lines that need some work

2007-01-24T14:47:00.000-06:00

Surely this one would make that top-10 list. It's good personal policy, I think, to never embrace a request that includes the phrase "Come up to my room and see the blueprints." [Image:xkcd.com]

As less traveled as it gets

2007-01-19T16:33:00.000-06:00

Why do we do the things we do? I wonder just how much of our lives comes down to doing what most of the herd does. I'm in favor of doing each of the following things, for example: brushing my teeth every day, wearing deodorant, owning a car and living in a nice, though not extravagant, home. I doubt that very many of us would seriously consider abandoning even one of those habits voluntarily.

I do all of those things (and have no plans to abandon them, especially the toothbrushing or the deodorant), but I do them primarily because I started doing what other people taught me to do. I didn't ask whether there might be advantages to doing things differently. Mark Creek-Water (pictured above) asks -- and answers -- that question every day:

Of course, how we lived was extravagant in Mark’s eyes. Some of us wore prescription sunglasses, for instance, where Mark chose to do without any eyewear even though he could not see clearly past fifty feet. We made personal purchases of toothbrushes, sunscreen, and deodorant, all of which he did without. We wore new, specialized walking clothing and shoes, where he wore only the clothes he found along the road or purchased second hand. We walked the country with an R.V. support vehicle and a fifteen passenger van to shuttle guest walkers. While he readily made use of these, he would have been content without them...

Despite Mark’s idiosyncrasies, we learned to appreciate deeply the pleasure he derives from the simplest of things. A crusty piece of two-day-old bread here, a gurgling creek there; a change in wind direction, an old wrench by the side of the road, a new moon, a few pieces of discarded paper with nothing written on the back which he could use for a new pamphlet, the kindness of someone who made him photocopies of his pamphlet for free...

Even though Mark walked a double shift for most of the journey, he was never in a hurry to finish walking for the day. The rest of us walked at 3-3.5 mph, thinking we were doing pretty well to slow down from our 65 mph lifestyles. Mark preferred to walk at 2-2.5 mph, and not because he was out of shape. “You miss too many things if you rush like that,” he’d say. “Slow down! What’s your hurry? Look, there’s a creek up ahead. I’m going to check it out.” He would stop for fifteen or twenty minutes, jogging afterwards to catch up with us (his thin legs are amazingly strong!) or he would accept a ride from Ray as he passed by in the R.V.

This passage is from a to-be-published book called Asphalt Jesus by author Eric Elnes, who participated in CrossWalk America last year. This emerging Christian movement is dedicated to making Christianity more compassionate and just by encouraging others to love God, neighbor and self fully. Mark Creek-Water is a 59-year-old “voluntarily houseless” man who decided to walk alongside Elnes and others who traversed the country to support their cause.

I don’t know whether I would be willing to walk in Creek-Water’s shoes for longer than a few days (if that long), but I wonder whether I would be happier and more fulfilled if I did. I think I know the answer, and that answer begs the question: Why not follow this example? Maybe the simple answer is that I am unwilling to change that dramatically, but I can’t help but admire this approach to life. If we all walked along even 10 percent of Mr. Creek-Water’s path, the world would be a more peaceful and more pleasant place to live. This raises another question, too: What 10 percent could I take from this heartwarming and remarkable example to instill in my own daily life? I don’t know yet, but I am already thinking about it. I may not follow the letter of this example, but I am inspired by its spirit.

Get a (Second) Life

2007-01-18T12:09:00.000-06:00

If a protest takes place in an Internet-based virtual-reality world, does it resonate in real life? If you're talking about a recent protest by Second Life users regarding the opening of a virtual Front National office, then the answer is yes.

I'm not sure whether to marvel at how quickly Second Life has evolved and at its diverse and rich virtual experience or to stare in disbelief at the entire spectacle. Front National is a far-right political party in France that many of its critics consider fascist, intolerant and racist. As CNET and many others have reported, users who opposed the party's arrival in Second Life's virtual world staged a protest recently that featured machine guns, rainbow explosions and pig-shaped grenades. At least one blogger "attended" the protest and shared his experience:

The first night I arrived at the protest against the Second Life headquarters of Front National, the far right French political party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, it was ringed on all sides by protesters with signs to wave and statements to distribute. By the second night I came (this was late last week), the conflict had become more literal, for many Residents had armed themselves. Multi-colored explosions and constant gunfire shredded the air of Porcupine, a shopping island which FN had inexplicably picked for the site of their virtual world HQ, in December...

It didn't begin like this. After Front National took root, at least two groups, antiFN and SL Left Unity, rose to oppose them. They had placards and T-shirts, and billboards on the land of sympathetic neighbors, all making plain that FN's arrival in Second Life was distinctly unwelcome. For their part, Front National members-- mostly muscular young men dressed in white T-shirts with the FN logo-- stood inside their headquarters, impassively watching the outrage build outside.

But the SL Left Unity group had press releases of their own. "We have acquired land next to the FN office," one announced, "and will be manning a protest there until FN go or are ejected. Wherever fascists are we will ensure they get no peace to corrupt and lie to decent people."

I'm amazed at the level of importance Second Life has earned in the lives of many people. I briefly signed up and explored the virtual world a few weeks ago. While I found it intriguing, I quickly realized that the giant social experiment was demanding a choice: Either immerse myself to my eyeballs in its world, or flee back to reality. In other words, to have a Second Life, I would have to risk sacrificing my first one. How in the world do users who are this consumed with Second Life have time to do anything else? (Maybe others are asking the same of we bloggers right now, and they might have a point.)

On the other hand, maybe there could be some value out of transferring our differences from the real world into cyberspace. How much of an improvement would it be to shift tragic and life-crushing hostilities such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a world such as this? I know there isn't a practical way to eliminate real-world consequences by relocating them to a land generated by bits of code, but I sure wish there were. I wish we could move the unyielding and hateful fundamentalists on both sides who refuse to look for compromise on this and so many other issues onto a Second Life island and allow the people who suffer in their midst in reality to begin rebuilding their communities and their lives.

We can build a fake world to fill our time, but we can't escape the pain and turmoil of the one we were born in. Unless we address the problems we face, they will follow us into cyberspace and anywhere else we go.

Where the sun don't shine

2007-01-17T07:22:00.000-06:00

The U.S. Senate joined the House yesterday in passing legislation requiring disclosure for earmarks, which are often referred to as pet projects that legislators anonymously insert into spending bills. The disclosure legislation requires members of Congress to list their names along with any earmarks and certify that they do not have a financial stake in the projects in question.

The bill passed 98-0 because no one wants to be seen as anti-transparency come election time, and I'm glad this kind of policy will become law. It begs the question why this didn't happen a long time ago, but at least it has happened now.

Here in Tennessee, I hope our lawmakers will follow this national example when it comes to ethics and disclosure. The Tennessean reported earlier this week that while the public must follow a 10-step procedure to view how legislators voted on a particular bill via the General Assembly Web site, lawmakers themselves can see the same results with a single click.

In a political climate where many citizens already question the integrity on both sides of the aisle, this inconsistency at the very least reinforces the perception that lawmakers don't want the sun to shine on their activities on the Hill. Senator Rosalind Kurita called this week for a new focus on open government in the wake of John Wilder's ouster as speaker of the Senate. I completely agree with the need for this change in direction:

It was time for a change in the structure [in the Senate]. The dedication to keeping a status quo was preventing our state from putting real energy and bi-partisan effort into solving problems and moving Tennessee forward. I chose to break the logjam so there can be a vigorous, but civil, policy discussion over the current and future direction of our state. We face a host of issues—from improving education, healthcare, and job creation to new alternative energy proposals and a more open government. We cannot afford gridlock or stagnation if we are to help solve these problems. It may seem ironic to some, but only now are Democrats and Republicans free to work together on real issues. I voted my conscience.

Open government should also be a part of the legislative agenda. One way to accomplish this would be to allow every voter an equal opportunity to vote for our state's constitutional officers: Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Comptroller. They are currently elected by the members of the General Assembly. Tennessee is one of very few states where voters are not empowered to make such important decisions on high-ranking government officials. Letting our citizens vote increases accountability and makes sure government is held accountable...

Every member of the Senate is tired of being 49th in so many areas. I intend to work with my fellow Democrats and Republicans as well as the new Lt. Governor to create legislation that moves our state forward. The era of the smoke-filled back room is over and we are now free to have a healthy public policy debate that can only benefit the citizens of this great state.

As I mentioned earlier, this era should have begun a long time ago, but I am grateful that it is happening now. There will always be political maneuvering in the General Assembly, but Tennessee is taking baby steps toward having a more open and honest governing body. I hope this trend continues, including making it easier for local residents to see how their elected officials voted on the bills put before them.

Is it lonely at the top by design?

2007-01-16T10:39:00.001-06:00

Why can't leaders balance boldness with humility? USA Today has a great story today about CEOs and their reluctance to accept criticism.

It's remarkable to me how many leaders from various segments of society consider their role to be a top-down, one-way relationship with their subordinates. As I mentioned yesterday, I believe that effective leadership requires service and sacrifice, not arrogance and isolation. In my opinion, humility isn't being a wimp. It's about facing and acknowledging contrary schools of thought and legitimate criticisms. Those skills require courage, and they are essential for anyone holding a leadership position, yet they are extremely tough to master and to maintain. At least that's what a PsyMax solutions study found recently, and I can't argue.

I admire Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley, who is featured in the article, for being willing to accept 360-degree feedback from his coworkers, even though it had indicated that he is "impatient" and "chronically late to meetings." Lafley says he listens because "feedback leads to growth." I think he is absolutely right.

Unfortunately, his opinion among leaders is very rare. Consider this insight from author Jean Lipman-Blumen (The Allure of Toxic Leaders):

"[Leaders sometimes] suffer from narcissism and grandiosity that blind them to the shortcomings of their own character ... Toxic leaders feed their followers the illusion that they are omnipotent and omniscient."

Making matters worse, leaders often not only disregard feedback and contrary points of view, they take steps either knowingly or by default to isolate themselves from opposing opinions and alternative ideas. Author Jeffrey Sonnefield (Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters) makes an astute observation in the article:

"[Some leaders] put lawyers and public relations specialists between them and the world more than the World War II veteran CEOs of 20 years ago, and they are more reluctant to admit mistakes for fear of looking weak or mortal. That is a mistake in itself because the pattern in heroes throughout history has been to err, suffer and learn. It's the rise from the setbacks that separate leaders from the 'conveyor belt of fate.'"

If you ask me, this is one of President Bush's most critical weaknesses as a leader. It may well cost him more than his actual policy decisions do. A president who could effectively acknowledge other points of view even while choosing an alternate direction and one who was more willing to admit mistakes would likely serve as much better as a nation.

A book named Egonomics is set to publish this fall, and it will tackle issues of ego and leadership in business, among other topics. The authors are maintaining an intriguing blog in the meantime that is well worth a look.

A new definition of greatness

2007-01-15T22:02:00.000-06:00

I hadn't heard these inspiring words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., until today, but they are already among my favorites of the quotes attributed to him.

If you want to be important -- wonderful. If you want to be recognized -- wonderful. If you want to be great -- wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve ... You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

I like the refreshing take on the "greatest among you shall be least" citation from the Bible. I've always taken that to mean that being selfish will leave you empty or diminished somehow, or even that you'll receive the smallest portion at God's table (whatever that may mean). The way Dr. King describes it turns that notion on its ear: He says instead that by serving, you will reach your ultimate potential. People are at their best, Dr. King points out, when they are helping others. It's not so much that you will be punished for stockpiling whatever you can gather, it's that ultimately you will be missing out on the best reward: the satisfaction of making contributions that benefit someone beyond yourself.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting things or desiring success and recognition. Despite all that we can collect, though, we are at our finest -- and we are most fulfilled -- when we are reaching out, not taking in. Thanks, Dr. King.

Way to go, George!

2007-01-15T14:19:00.000-06:00

My first thought upon reading this article was, “Does he really want to be in the Guinness Book that badly?” I’m encouraged to see that George Hood of Aurora, Illinois, who apparently broke the world record for riding a stationery bike on Saturday, used the feat to raise money for an organization that helps families of slain police officers. That’s a wonderful and worthy cause for anyone to ride a bike for 85 hours. Even better, he may have given the biggest donation in the organization’s history:

Hood hoped the feat would help raise thousands of dollars for the Illinois chapter of COPS, an organization that helps the families of slain police officers. Illinois COPS president Jennifer Morales has said Hood could be the largest single fundraiser the local group has had. Baron said Hood raised $25,000 for the group – $5,000 more than his goal.

Congratulations to Mr. Hood on achieving his goals, physical and philanthropic.

I wonder why people are so compelled to earn world records. I understand the desire for excellence when it comes to athletic or artistic achievements because those pastimes are widely followed and performed by a large population of people. In other words, holding a world record in track is significant because millions of people around the world run on a regular basis. Holding such a world record means that very likely no one, or at the least a very small number of people, can surpass your effort at that activity. That is an accomplishment to savor, no doubt.

I have no interest in diminishing Hood’s achievement because it is remarkable, but it’s important to note that he did not technically ride for 85 consecutive hours. For those of you wondering how he went to the bathroom, here’s your answer: “Hood took a few brief power naps along the way. Guinness Book rules allow a five-minute break for every completed hour of cycling.”

Nonetheless, I could not match Hood’s achievement without a serious period of conditioning training, and I have zero desire to try. Nicely done, George! [Image: AP via CNN.com]

Shame on me and Patrick McHenry

2007-01-13T15:15:00.000-06:00

In a Friday post, I fell for a Washington Times article that I will not dignify by linking again. In my opinion, a few House GOP members (particularly Rep. Patrick McHenry) are dishonestly making the claim that Pelosi's minimum wage bill is somehow providing preferential treatment for a manufacturer in her district that has facilities in American Samoa. According to Sean Braisted and Hill News (below), this is absolutely false:

Efforts to bring the U.S. territory in the Northern Mariana islands under federal minimum wage law is creating political headaches for House Democrats because the U.S. has long held American Samoa to a different wage standard.

House Republicans are making plenty of political hay over the disparity between the two territories’ wage policies, lambasting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) for "exempting" American Samoa from their minimum wage bill and claiming that they’re being motivated by the fact that Del Monte’s headquarters are located in Pelosi’s district. Del Monte owns StarKist Tuna, which owns one of two packing plants in Samoa that together employ a large portion of the islands workers.

But the disparity between American Samoa and the Northern Mariana islands’ wage policies is nothing new, and the Democrats’ minimum wage bill does not mention American Samoa in any way.

While the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) has been exempt from any federal minimum wage standards – an exemption that former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff worked for years to protect – Samoa has operated under federal minimum wage laws for years.

Samoa, however, has a federal wage review board in place that allows it to evaluate the effect incremental increases in its minimum wages would have on the territory’s economy. This wage review board, made up of representatives in Samoa’s business and public sector who are appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, has set Samoa’s wages and has managed to keep them well below the mainland U.S. minimum wage.

Or, as blogger dday put it more succinctly (bold added by me):

[I]t's important to note that the substance of the Republican argument, that the minimum wage bill specifically exempts American Samoa from federal minimum wage laws, is factually incorrect. American Samoa has ALREADY been exempt from those laws for some time, including for 12 years under a Republican majority. Currently wage floors in American Samoa are set by the US Department of Labor.

Mea culpa for calling out Pelosi for something she was not doing. Shame on those who tried to fool the public (and fooled me) by claiming she was trying to pull a fast one.

What would Jesus speak?

2007-01-13T14:59:00.000-06:00

Amen.

Where on the Web is Karl Dean?

2007-01-12T13:31:00.000-06:00

I can't find a Web site for Karl Dean, a candidate to be Nashville's mayor in 2007. Dean announced his candidacy on December 19, nearly a month ago, and appears to be the only major mayoral candidate who does not have a campaign presence on the Web.

According to many, Dean's base is young and/or wealthy progressives in West Nashville. I think Dean may be a very strong candidate for mayor, and I know that his base spends a lot of time on the Internet. Where are you, Karl?

I promise I'm not looking for podcasts and streaming video, just a basic Web site with background information, platform details and a photo or two. While we're on the subject, David Briley, who is likely Dean's biggest challenger for the progressive vote, has an innovative and attractive Web site. I won't vote for him merely because of a Web site, but at least I know where to find him when I need him. Here's where you can find the other candidates on the net:

Dave Pelton, who just announced his creative and engaging plans to run through 36 of Nashville's neighborhoods beginning tomorrow morning, isn't quite as creative and engaging on the Web. Dave, please give us some new content and post your news releases.

If I've missed anyone, including you, Karl, please let me know.

Three observations from the Hill

2007-01-12T11:40:00.000-06:00

I'd like to hear Rep. Nancy Pelosi's explanation for this bit of pork barrel in the House's minimum-wage bill. I support this bill, but exempting favored businesses or areas is wrong. The Washington Post has reported on the emerging controversy:

One of the biggest opponents of the federal minimum wage in Samoa is StarKist Tuna, which owns one of the two packing plants that together employ more than 5,000 Samoans, or nearly 75 percent of the island's work force. StarKist's parent company, Del Monte Corp., has headquarters in San Francisco, which is represented by Mrs. Pelosi. The other plant belongs to California-based Chicken of the Sea.

2) Members of Congress should read bills, or make sure their staffs have, before they vote on them.

"I was troubled to learn of this exemption," said Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois Republican. "My intention was to raise the minimum wage for everyone. We shouldn't permit any special favors or exemptions that are not widely discussed in Congress. This is the problem with rushing legislation through without full debate.

3) Rep. Patrick McHenry has a pretty good sense of humor.

During the House debate yesterday on stem-cell research, Mr. McHenry raised a parliamentary inquiry as to whether an amendment could be offered that would exempt American Samoa from stem-cell research, "just as it was for the minimum-wage bill."

A clearly perturbed Rep. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who was presiding, cut off Mr. McHenry and shouted, "No, it would not be."

"So, the chair is saying I may not offer an amendment exempting American Samoa?" Mr. McHenry pressed.

"The gentleman is making a speech and will sustain," Mr. Frank shouted as he slammed his large wooden gavel against the rostrum.

Our hopes for change and progress in Washington do not yet appear to have taken root. In fairness, both parties do this sort of thing on a regular basis. Why did Pelosi think this would go unnoticed, especially considering her prominence and her recent public words about honesty and positive change? I want those things, too, so I would really like to hear an explanation for this.

Cingular is dead

2007-01-12T09:51:00.000-06:00

AT&T will axe the Cingular brand name now that it has acquired BellSouth. I think this is a big mistake. I am a Verizon customer, but I didn't choose Verizon because of its name. I chose it because it offered me a better deal through my office than I could get as a consumer.

Cingular has invested billions of dollars creating and promoting this unique moniker. BellSouth abandoned the name BellSouth Mobility in order to do that. AT&T is claiming dollar savings and increased opportunity for bundling services by making the change, but I tend to agree with this take:

But with its long and complicated history, AT&T may face customer confusion over its name, marketing experts said. Also, Cingular built up a reputation among younger customers who may not easily associate with the AT&T brand.

Furthermore, if customers do associate AT&T with wireless phones, here's what they think:

The new AT&T was formed in the merger of SBC Communications and AT&T Corp. in late 2005. Adding to the mix, in late 2004 Cingular bought AT&T Wireless, eradicating that brand because of its poor reputation among customers.

In a somewhat related note, someone please acquire Vonage and get rid of that excruciating theme song. I mute the TV every time it comes on. Aargh.

One punk under God

2007-01-11T13:42:00.000-06:00

I highly recommend checking out the six-episode Sundance Channel documentary One Punk Under God that began airing in December. It recounts the recent adventures of Jay Bakker, son of maligned 70s and 80s televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, and his wife Amanda.

After rebelling and partying for a few years (as most preacher's kids do), Bakker settled down, grew up and started a church of his own, one that's a little different from the average steeple on the corner and a far cry from his parents' scandal-ridden PTL days. Not surprisingly given his childhood, Jay is focused on avoiding the kind of hypocrisy and self-righteousness that left him with a bad taste of Christianity in his mouth. He has concentrated instead on humility and grace and being authentic and loving to other people in seeking a relationship with God. Here's a quote from Bakker spoken on Larry King Live in 2001 that resonated with me:

"I think we get caught in this idea of pleasing God rather than trusting God. And I think once you learn to trust God, it's a lot easier to please God."

If you're God, do you really want people bringing you grapes? I think Bakker this is absolutely on to something with those words. In my opinion, one reason Christians and dedicated people of many other religions generate a backlash is that they are awfully quick to speak for God instead of letting God speak. Now I'm not really sure whether God uses words or performs miracles to get his points across, but I do think he acts within our hearts and minds. I think it is better to act with respect and love than with hostility and judgment. Bakker appears to agree with me here, too, based on the stickers he likes to place on parking meters and road signs to promote his church:

"As Christians, we're sorry for being self-righteous judgmental bastards."

Lately I'm tending to err heavily on the side of grace when it comes to God because I sincerely think that, if God as an all-powerful supreme being is real, why wouldn't he demonstrate his power with compassion and grace? Is there a better way to say "Hi, I'm God?" What would sending millions of people to Hell really do to prove that he is mighty?

Many media outlets have reported on Jay and Amanda's story, including the New York Times Magazine and The Seattle Times. Both are good reads if you are looking to learn more about this generation of Bakkers, and Jay's church has its own shop on the Web. Sundance has plenty of repeats of all the episodes running.

Keep riding the old cycle, too

2007-01-11T13:27:00.000-06:00

I'm glad to see that newspapers still have some life left in them:

A recent survey by the University of Southern California's Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center and Ketchum found that consumers still depend heavily on newspapers and TV news for information, with nearly 70 percent relying on their local newspapers.

The survey seems to confirm what I've long observed. People today are swimming in a sea of media. Newspapers aren't going away, they're just not alone anymore in an increasingly crowded ocean.

This "crowded ocean" is a good description for the evolution of media I wrote about earlier this week. I'm also encouraged to see that the survey indicated that young people are in fact newspaper readers, despite the common perception that recent generations don't read the paper:

More than half of adults 18 to 24 read local newspapers, the survey shows, with 16.4 percent reading a national newspaper or newspapers. Young adults are the most well rounded in their media habits, making significant use of all types of new and traditional media.

There are disadvantages to having more media options, including feeling overloaded by content, but I for one am happy to have more choices than ever for news sources. Thanks to Brittney for spying this information.

Is technology making us stupid?

2007-01-10T07:45:00.000-06:00

Generally speaking, I think technology does make us more intelligent and allows us to do things we may never previously have thought possible (or necessary, in some cases). Are we becoming too dependent on it, too?

I'm not worried about computers taking over the world, yet, but I wonder if we aren't gradually being dumbed down by technology. We were warned: Our teachers and parents told us to learn math before relying on calculators to crunch numbers for us. Calculators would make it so easy, they said, that we wouldn't pick up the underlying logic and technique.

I wonder whether cell phones are doing the same thing to us. When I was a kid, I knew my home phone number. We had a second line for a while as well, and I still remember both numbers. I remember the number of the family that lived across the street, but I haven't called them in 15 years. Today, I can't tell you the phone numbers of my three best friends or the home phone numbers of my brother or my father. I don't have to remember them: They're all stored in my cell phone.

This reminds me of a scene in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Indy and his dad have a memorable conversation about the things we remember (and the things we forget):

Professor Henry Jones: Stop. You're going the wrong way. We need to get to Berlin.
Indiana Jones: Brody's this way.
Professor Henry Jones: My diary's in Berlin.
Indiana Jones: We don't need the diary, Dad. Marcus has the map.
Professor Henry Jones: There is more in the diary than just the map.
Professor Henry Jones: Well, he who finds the Grail must face the final challenge.
Indiana Jones: What final challenge?
Professor Henry Jones: Three devices of such lethal cunning.
Indiana Jones: Booby traps?
Professor Henry Jones: Oh yes. But I found the clues that will safely take us through, in the Chronicles of St. Anselm.
Indiana Jones: But what are they? Can't you remember?
Professor Henry Jones: I wrote them down in my Diary so I wouldn't have to remember.

I wonder if this is what cell phones are doing to us. I joke sometimes that my cell phone is my brain because it contains my calendar and contacts. Without it, I'm on my way to Berlin, too.

Tomorrow is faster than you think

2007-01-10T07:38:00.000-06:00

Even Crave, CNET's blog about technology, isn't fast enough to keep up with the pace of innovation. Here's a post from Monday (emphasis added):

If there were no buttons on your cell phone, imagine how big the screen could be...

Synaptics is doing just that with its Onyx phone (below), a new concept in cell phone technology. Shaped like a remote, it's a bar-style phone that would integrate GPS, music, teleconferencing and calendar events.

But the coolest part is the screen, which takes up nearly the whole handset. Synaptics calls it ClearPad, a thin, high-resolution touch screen based on the company's proprietary sensing technology. With it, there would be no need for buttons to input information. Information can be entered into the Onyx concept phone with two fingers, or via text entry.

Unfortunately, no company is planning on releasing this phone anytime soon, but the Onyx is out there and could be an indicator of what's to come in the design of mobile handsets.

On Tuesday, Steve Jobs confirmed that "not anytime soon" is this coming June. Apple will release the iPhone (above) this summer, and I have to say that it looks revolutionary even for Apple. The iPhone seems remarkably similar in concept to the Onyx, although on first glance it looks better implemented.

The iPhone has been rumored for weeks, but I honestly didn't think it would be this significant a leap forward in technology. I have to confess that I don't care for the iPod's proprietary format that won't allow the use of subscription music services, so I don't know if I'll be an early adopter. I'll probably hold out to see if Palm or anyone else building for the Palm OS can develop a comparable alternative, but I'm sold so far on this new interface.

I think it's wild to see Crave highlight what appeared to be a distant technology on one day, only to see a similar (and possibly better) innovation launch the following day. Things are moving fast around here, and they aren't slowing down anytime soon.

This goal shouldn't have counted...

2007-01-09T22:18:00.000-06:00

... but I'm sure glad it did. Did anyone else notice how much the Preds' Martin Erat was offside before he assisted on David Legwand's goal in the second period tonight? The Preds went on to beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 in overtime, but I could tell watching in real time that Erat was either much faster than everyone on the ice or past the blue line before the puck. I didn't hear Pete and Terry point out the missed call, but maybe they were just being nice.

The DVR didn't lie: Erat was easily five feet ahead of the puck into the zone. I think the ref must have missed the offsides call because he was busy avoiding the puck. His head was turned away from Erat, and by the time he recovered Erat and the puck were even.

I'm happy the Preds won against the NHL's current best team, but these two points should come with an asterisk attached. Regardless, go Preds!!

Ride this cycle

2007-01-09T15:43:00.000-06:00

I am amazed how fast the news cycle has shortened. I just received an email from the City Paper reporting the breaking news that John Wilder is no longer speaker. My first thought was that this news is no longer breaking because I read about it 150 minutes ago. Granted, I'm a news junkie, so I'm essentially wrong: This major, first-time-in-35-years news is still breaking, and plenty of people still haven't heard about it. Note that I just wrote "still."

Newscoma has an interesting and related post today about, among other things, how news is (or isn't) evolving. It begs the question, what is all of this going to look like in 5, 10 and 20 years?

Marrying the new media with the old media is a conversation I’m having with a lot of folks. You see, I may run a bi-weekly paper but the thing is, I would like to see how to arrange this effectively where everyone wins.
There are people in this world (I’m one of them) that loves the smudged ink stains on the tips of my fingers, the smell of a newly printed paper still toasty from coming off the press, reading the cutlines with an editor’s words describing their interpretation of a picture and opening the box of a newspaper box, the change clicking into the small box offering me a little slice of the world.

I also love the blogging community I’m in. Instant feedback, intimacy, dialogue and slices of worlds that I used to not have access to.

There has been plenty of ink and plenty of pixels devoted to the notion that newspapers are gradually dying out (some claiming not so gradually), but I'm not sure that's the whole story. Too many of us still like to read, even if a future newspaper doesn't look the way Newscoma describes above sooner or later, so I don't think we're headed toward an all-video future, as some have suggested. Hopefully, there will always be room for the written word alongside the spoken word and the image (moving or still).

[Thanks to Nashville Is Talking for pointing this post out.]

Related case in point: Even the media we choose to consume is changing. Despite the drawbacks that come from an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia is a favorite site of mine. The entry regarding John Wilder that I have been referencing recently in my posts has already been edited to refer to his tenure as speaker in the past tense. Aside: Does Wilder know about the series of tubes??

Great riddance

2007-01-09T14:25:00.000-06:00

I'm relieved by the State Senate's decision today to replace John Wilder as Lt. Governor. I applaud Senator Rosalind Kurita for following her conscience, as she explained, in voting for Sen. Ron Ramsey for speaker. Whether there were the usual machinations behind the scenes to bring about this result, I have no idea, but this is a good change for the state. In my opinion, voting against her party, regardless of other political implications, was the right thing to do.

Reportedly Sen. Jerry Cooper voted for Wilder, but not before privately urging him to step down as speaker. I would have liked to see him vote against Wilder, but I still respect his direct request of the former speaker. I like the sound of that last phrase.

It is a sad situation that Sen. Mike Williams, who many thought might be the deciding vote, likely made his decision only after seeing Kurita vote against Wilder. With Wilder unable to get the required 17 votes regardless of what Williams did, Williams did the politically expedient thing and voted with his party rather than for Wilder. If the speaker election were a secret ballot announced only after the counting instead of a public roll call vote, Wilder's tenure as speaker may have ended a long time ago. That's a shame.

Even Wilder

2007-01-09T12:18:00.000-06:00

Bob Krumm isn't as optimistic as Kleinheider. Is he right?

My best guess is that the legislative session will begin as it has for the last 36 years–with John Wilder at the helm. And if that is the case, my sincerest wishes are for the old man to do his job well over the next two years. The future of our State depends on it.

I hope he is wrong, and Bob does, too. He goes on to raise an even more significant issue:

I made John Wilder’s leadership a center piece of my campaign to change the culture on Capitol Hill. The majority of people seemed to agree that he was incompetent. But acknowledging that Wilder needed to go was not the same thing as making Senator Douglas Henry precede him out the door...

Based on what I have read in the past few months, I would have to say that nearly everyone outside of the State Senate (and many within its walls) realizes that having John Wilder as our Lt. Governor is not in Tennessee's best interest. Making that assumption, why is it that a small group of men cannot act in the best interest of six million people whom they serve? It is disappointing to see, though perhaps no surprise, that we struggle as a society to create positive change through government. Here's hoping that Wilder's tenure as speaker ends today and that we inch toward a government better suited to serve as many of its constituents as possible.

Wilder than ever

2007-01-09T11:59:00.000-06:00

Today may (or may not) be decision day regarding the next speaker of the Tennessee State Senate. Whenever a verdict is reached, I sure hope Kleinheider is right:

They say in Tennessee Politics never to bet against the old man [incumbent speaker John Wilder], but I am tempted to this morning. My out on a limb prediction is that a week from now, John Wilder will no longer be Speaker. It may be [Sen. Ron] Ramsey or it may be someone else, but it will not be Wilder.

I think this would be a very positive development for Tennessee. In my opinion, Wilder has succeeded in establishing some level of bipartisanship that may well not have existed without him. That is a good thing. He has failed, though, in doing much other than maintaining his position as speaker, and he is largely responsible for the quagmire that the State Senate often is.

Here's one question I can't answer yet: Would Ramsey make a better speaker? Unquestionably, I think he would be a more credible figurehead for this governing body, but his ascension would likely lead to a much more partisan atmosphere.

I also wonder how much that atmosphere would change if Wilder is no longer the speaker. Regardless, I think having someone other than Wilder as Lt. Governor would be a good thing for the state, but how would the Senate operate in the wake of such a big change? Keep in mind that Wilder has served as speaker since 1971, so suffice it to say that there's a well-worn, if undeniably eccentric, pattern of (or lack of) leadership in place.

I am holding out hope that Randy McNally emerges as the speaker, as Kleinheider speculates may be the case.

If no one can bust through the gridlock, someone very well may put McNally's name in the hopper. He is a Republican, which would be fitting since the GOP holds a numerical majority. Also he is viewed as a Republican that Democrats can work with. If no one is able to achieve 17, I would look for a Lt. Governor McNally on a third or fourth ballot.

All of this leads me to a larger question: Is there anything that can reasonably be done to improve either legislative body of the General Assembly? There appears to be plenty of cynicism, self-interest and corruption to go around for quite some time, and I would sincerely like to see things change for the better. Unseating Wilder would likely be at least one solid step in that direction.

Don't (just) throw more money at it

2007-01-04T14:07:00.000-06:00

I really can't fault Tennesseans for not wanting to spend more money on public education, as a new Vanderbilt study indicates:

The study showed that Tennesseans are concerned about their public education system and do not rate it highly or have confidence it is on the right track. But respondents said they are not eager to spend more money on the system, even though they say they would like teachers to be better paid.

Don't get me wrong--it's not that I don't want to see public education improved. I do. I also think a major portion of the local budget should be dedicated to education in order to help allieviate crime and poverty.

I have two disclaimers to make: I never attended public school, and I have no idea what is wrong with our schools. It seems like a very complex problem with plenty of politics and competing agendas. (See my previous post regarding Nancy Pelosi and replace the political references with educational ones.)

Only increasing the budget isn't enough. Is there a diagnosis and proposed strategic solution for improving our schools? Has there been an independent audit to look at how existing funds are spent?

Partnership, not partisanship

2007-01-04T12:58:00.000-06:00

Representative Nancy Pelosi (above), who was elected Speaker of the House today, is expected to emphasize partnership over partisanship in her remarks this afternoon, according to CNN.

Former Rep. J.C. Watts, participating in CNN's coverage, noted that that spirit will last about "100 hours" before gridlock ensues. He also noted that Washington is driven by ego and power and that that combination is "dangerous." No kidding.

Can this ever change? Why won't the Democrats seize the opportunity before them to genuinely try to build consensus and focus on constructive compromise? I'm not just singling out the Dems, either, because the GOP didn't do much in the way of bipartisanship over the past 12 years despite much mention of collaboration.

Is Congress designed, whether intentionally or not, to drive division and reward arrogance and hostility? It is a sad state of affairs, I think, that our leaders cannot come together and find a way to act in the general best interest of the nation. Here's hoping that the spirit of hope and opportunity that will be heavily promoted today is more than smoke and mirrors by next week. Please, Dems, take this opportunity to make our country a better place, together with the GOP.

Map your happiness

2007-01-03T14:28:00.000-06:00

Have you seen this world map measuring happiness?

The academic term is subjective well-being (SWB), but that's essentially an analytical euphemism for happiness. Adrian G. White of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom has developed a visual depiction of the world that is color-coded by overall level of happiness, as measured in individual nations.

Some of the findings aren't surprising. The United States and most industrialized nations rank high on the SWB index (indicated in deep red on the map). Poor and undeveloped countries, including Russia and most of the former Soviet republics, generally rank low (yellow on the map). There are no yellow countries and only one orange-yellow nation in all of the Western Hemisphere (French Guiana). There isn't a single country in Africa that is red or light red. Reviewing the map, I couldn't help but think of the U2 song, "Crumbs From Your Table:"

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die

Unfortunately, in too many places in the world, that is exactly what it does. According to White, SWB generally correlates to health, wealth and basic education access. It would be easy to conclude that money buys happiness after looking at the map, and there is a case to be made to a degree. I wonder, though, if something is else more predictive of happiness, something that is frequently associated with good health, good income and good education: the resources and the ability to change your circumstances.

Does SWB boil down to a personal sense of empowerment? Consider that Mongolia, a poor nation in a remote location, is red. Then again, so is Saudi Arabia, and even Iran is orange. Albania and Bulgaria, former authoritarian Communist Bloc countries that continue to struggle economically, are yellow. Perhaps personal empowerment combined with political stability are prerequisites for happiness.

Progressive and (relatively) pacifist countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Canada rank highest on the list, all of them above the United States. Yes, they've benefited greatly from military strength of the U.S. and Western Europe, but should they also be telling us something? If so, my guess is that we should lighten up on worrying so much about moral issues and focus on making sure as many people as possible have enough to eat, access to sound medical care and the ability to read. Here's hoping this map someday looks like a giant tomato. [Image: University of Leicester]

Auction to benefit James Kim family

2007-01-02T21:50:00.000-06:00

Several artists are holding an online auction to benefit James Kim, who passed away last month while attempting to save his family in the Oregon wilderness.

An auction of fine art + craft to benefit the family of James Kim organized by sisters Lisa Congdon and Stephanie Barnes and their mother Gerrie Congdon. 100% of the auction proceeds will go to the The James Kim Memorial Fund. Auction items from the artists listed below will be available for bid starting January 3, 2007on eBay. There will be a link to the eBay listing for each item from this site starting the morning of January 3. Bidding ends January 7th. Thank you for visiting and bidding!

This is a great cause for a family that has clearly been through a lot in the past several weeks. Spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. [The image above is an abstracted quilt depicting Spooner Lake near Lake Tahoe by artist Gerrie Congdon. Source: Kim family auction blog site.]

Like we care

2007-01-02T14:27:00.000-06:00

Now that New Year's Day has passed, I think we're safe to discard all of the kindness, compassion and peace-on-earth mumbo jumbo that we've been force-fed and spewed forth since mid-November.

Just kidding. Or am I? Why do we only celebrate (and encourage) compassion and goodwill once a year? If Christmas really is not our birthday, why can't every day be a little more like Christmas? Well, why can't every day be a little more like Christmas could be: Everyone could just try a little harder to treat each other with respect and kindness?

I don't mean the Southern flavor of kindness, the one where you pretend to be nice because you'd feel guilty if you didn't (guilty as charged, although at least we're not all swinging at each other down here). I mean the authentic variety where you take responsibility for yourself and your actions and think about other people pretty often, too.

Yes, this is a little idealistic, but I can be practical, too. I know we're all going to have days between now and 2008 where someone cuts us off in traffic, gives us a nasty look or flips us a bird. On some of those days, we're each going to be that someone, too, in one form or another. We're going to have bad days, and people are going to disagree with us. Still, I'd like to think that at least somewhere in our souls, nearly all of us meant what we said or read or sang (or all of the above) a week or two ago, including the parts about loving our neighbors and being kind to others.

It's not Christmas, and it won't be again for another 356 days, but let's all resolve to pretend that it is, OK? [Image: allposters.com]

Franklin cinema update

2007-01-02T11:36:00.000-06:00

The Tennessean is reporting the following encouraging news this morning via its Web site:

Franklin Mayor Tom Miller says he is acting as a facilitator to bring together two potential financial backers who may buy or lease the 70-year-old, two-screen Franklin Cinema.

This is wonderful news for a beloved and historic venue scheduled to close permanently this Sunday night (Jan. 7). Mayor Miller says he is "guardedly optimistic," and I hope that his efforts are fruitful.

I've previously written about the Franklin Cinema's fate and acknowledged that I haven't done much to support it in the past. If it survives, I plan on seeing movies there more often. I'm pulling for you, Franklin Cinema! [Image: thefuntimesguide.com]

I can't say it any better...

2007-01-01T16:00:00.000-06:00

Happy 2007 everyone!

Happy Early New Year!

2006-12-31T10:57:00.000-06:00

The celebrating is over in Sydney (above), but there's plenty of time left on this side of the world.

SYDNEY knows how to turn on a shindig. And the city did not disappoint last night's New Year's Eve revellers, providing a fireworks display with an accent all its own - filled with splashes of magenta, lime and gold, and an excess of sound and light.

As many as 1 million Sydneysiders braved wind and (predicted) rain to welcome 2007. And, as usual, the Harbour Bridge was the hub of the extravaganza.

Someone even beats the Aussies to the new year, though, and it's not just New Zealand. The Chatham Islands are the very first inhabited territory to see sunrise each day. This community of about 700 people observes time 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand. The London Sunday Times sent a reporter there recently, and his account is an adventure at the edge of the world (one where he still manages to lose his luggage on a flight with only 12 passengers):

Chatham Island is the ultimate frontier: if the earth were flat, this would be the edge of it. In fact, it lies beyond the edge: at 44°00’S, 176°30’W, it rests within a kink of the International Date Line...

The greatest draw of Chatham Island is, ultimately, its geographical position. On my last day there, I woke up at dawn. It was a glorious occasion of pinkish clouds and birdsong. There may be six billion people on our planet, but at that moment, I was one of the first to see dawn.

Here's hoping that you and your loved ones have a memorable and rewarding 2007, even if it doesn't start for another 12 hours or so. Happy New Year! [Image source: Sydney Morning Herald]

The wrong other side of the world

2006-12-29T10:26:00.000-06:00

Wow! Can you imagine what it must have felt like to realize this mistake?

A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

It must be weird to arrive on the wrong side of the other side of the world. I assume the language barrier had to play a part in this error as it developed. It wouldn't be all that weird to land in America en route to Sydney from Europe. Sure, I'd notice something was wrong once I boarded a plane in Portland headed for Montana, but what about the German equivalent? If I were flying to a destination in Asia, I might not notice a problem (other than inconvenience) with stops in Frankfurt and Berlin. Like this traveler, I would know something was seriously wrong when boarding a prop plane for BFE, rural Germany, though.

As a side note, in my opinion this was a major missed public relations opportunity by the airline(s) in question. Carrying the traveler safely to Australia for free would have spawned some great goodwill and positive word of mouth. Whoops. The mayor of either Sidney or Sydney might have made a splash by granting him a key to the city, too. [Image source: sidneymt.com]

Have a Nice Day?

2006-12-29T07:20:00.000-06:00

Are you happy? According to this article from Slate, that question is harder to answer than you might think.

[W]hen you ask people how happy they are, the answer you get will depend on whether the sun is shining or whether they have just found a dime on the floor. ([Psychologist Norbert] Schwarz used to plant coins where people would find them.)
That just shows how vulnerable people's views of their own satisfaction with life are. Kahneman argues that measures of life satisfaction are based on heavily edited memories of actual experiences. People recall the peaks, gloss over the troughs, and are influenced by recent events, including sunshine and serendipitous dimes. The kind of person who says she is happy with her life, then, is the kind of person who is experiencing lots of intense, positive emotion, even if there is a lot of anxiety thrown in there, too. High-powered city types remember the excitement of the deal but forget the misery of the long commute.

This theory intrigues me. Is it a bad thing if it's true? It sounds like people tend to focus on the joys in life and dismiss their hardships as momentary. That seems like an honorable and practical way to live. Considering the impact of the sunshine and the coins (both temporary circumstances) on the way people answer, it sounds like many of us gauge our happiness by living in the moment.

One thing the article doesn't mention is what happens when people step in a mudpuddle or have their wallets stolen right before they're asked whether they're happy. If sunshine and coins lead to happiness, where to wet clothes and empty pockets lead?

While we're on the subject of happiness, did you know that this fellow owns the smiley face?

[Image source: http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/2006/07/have_a_nice_day.html]

This plank's for me

2006-12-28T08:33:00.000-06:00

I think Jim Wallis is on the right track in this recent blog post. Arrogance isn't a virtue, and it sure isn't easily avoided. I agree with Wallis that it ought to be a high priority for anyone looking to follow Christ and that it is sorely lacking in all of us.

Jesus being the Son of God does NOT mean that Christians are better, more right, more righteous, more moral, more blessed, more destined to win battles, or more suited to govern and decide political matters than non-Christians. Instead, believing that Jesus was the Son of God would better mean that people who claim to believe it ought to then live the way Jesus did and taught. And on that one, many of us Christians (who believe the right way) are in serious trouble when it comes to the way we live. Those who believe that Jesus was the Son of God should be the most loving, compassionate, forgiving, welcoming, peaceful, and hungry for justice people around—just like Jesus, right? Well, it's not always exactly so.

I'll never forget hearing Billy Graham, the world's greatest evangelist, the last time he spoke at Harvard. He preached at Harvard's Memorial Church (to a huge crowd of students who had slept out all night just to get a seat), and then to the prestigious JFK Forum at the Kennedy School of Government the next night. After giving a statesmanlike address at the Kennedy School, he turned to the audience for questions. All the Christian triumphalists had shown up for their man and their night at Harvard.

One young believer stood up and asked Dr. Graham, "Since Jesus said 'I am the way, the truth and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by me,' doesn't that mean people from other religions—Jews and the rest- are going to hell?" Billy replied, "I'm sure glad that God is the judge of people's hearts and not me! And I trust God to decide those questions justly and mercifully." The student was disappointed and pressed further, "Well, what do you think God will decide?" Graham demurred, "Well, God doesn't really ask my advice on those matters." Another questioner started again, "Well, what about those who aren't even monotheists—like the Buddhists?" Graham, replied, "You know, I've been to some Buddhist countries, and so many of the people I met seem to live more like Jesus than too many Christians I've seen."

Regardless of the source, many religions and philosophies--including Christianity--support the wisdom that change should begin with the individual. In other words, when I get done removing the plank from my own eye, I'll be back to remove the speck from yours. Don't wait up. I'm bound to forget that promise on a regular basis, but here's hoping for more effort toward righting our own wrongs--rather than everyone else's--in the year ahead.

Stargazing by ZIP code

2006-12-28T08:07:00.000-06:00

MIT student Ben Fry has developed a very cool ZIP code map that lets you view the area assigned to each number of your ZIP code (3-7-2-0-9, for example). It looks like a star-filled night sky shaped like the United States. Click once on the map and then type in your ZIP code one digit at a time and watch it zero in on your homebase. It won't reveal your rooftop or anything, but it is interesting to see how ZIP codes fit together. If you're looking for a little perspective, hit 372 (the Nashville area) and zoom in.

Beautiful sunset

2006-12-27T17:03:00.000-06:00

The sunset tonight is gorgeous. I would have missed it if not for a coworker letting me know. Check it out, quickly, if you can.

No snooze for you!

2006-12-27T16:39:00.000-06:00

This alarm clock is a hilarious--and possibly sad--commentary on our society. Equipped with its own wheels, Clocky flees your presence if you continue to hit the snooze bar in the morning. Yes, it will literally roll off of the nightstand (as long as said nightstand is two feet tall or less) and move around the room. I may have to buy one of these for my wife. :)

The alarm clock that runs away and hides when you don't wake up. Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time.

When the alarm sounds, Clocky will start beeping. You can snooze once for your choosen (sic) number of snooze minutes and if you don't get up, Clocky will start beeping again and run away. If 0 was choosen (sic) as the snooze time, Clocky will run away as soon as the alarm sounds. He always starts by moving forward off of your nightstand. Then he will move around for 30 seconds in different directions.

Remember kids, clocky is not a toy. At least that's what its Web site says.

Nashville Mayor update

2006-12-27T12:07:00.000-06:00

As I recently wrote, I think it's important to take time to learn about every candidate who is campaigning to be Nashville's next mayor.

Kenneth Eaton, a longtime Nashville businessman, is planning to officially announce his candidacy next month. Dave Pelton, a self-described energy and environmental policy expert, threw his hat in the ring earlier this fall. Both candidates' Web sites have more details about their platforms.

Respectful exploration

2006-12-27T09:36:00.000-06:00

I believe forgiveness and humility grant us the freedom to be who we really are. If we can authentically lower our defenses and acknowledge other points of view, we have the opportunity to learn from each other and to grow as individuals.

This is not about surrendering one's beliefs in the face of another's. It's about peacefully engaging each other in dialogue instead of insisting that a single viewpoint is the only possible solution. It is an acknowledgment that no single person or organization has a stranglehold on wisdom.

I'm encouraged to see Lipscomb University exploring this path with their recently established Institute of Conflict Management. The organization discussed religious conflict earlier this fall and will focus on capital punishment in January. Here's an excerpt from today's Tennessean story about the institute:

Larry Bridgesmith [executive director for the institute] acknowledges that there is a risk that the conservative Christian university may alienate some members of its own community and others outside it by taking on such divisive issues. But, he said, if the institute is successful, it will be a good faith, respectful exploration of interests that all sides share and will help people deal better with conflict.

I think we could all benefit from an increased focus on "respectful exploration." Best wishes to Mr. Bridgesmith and this effort.

True words

2006-12-26T15:39:00.000-06:00

My last post reminded me of words I read earlier today on Nashville Is Talking. Thanks, Brittney, for an abridged version of what I just wrote. A similar idea communicated much more simply, succinctly and successfully:

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

What the Dalai Lama said with these words, the Amish and Immaculée Ilibagiza have said with their lives.

Radical forgiveness

2006-12-26T15:18:00.000-06:00

Forgiveness and humility can change the world, if we let them. I'm grateful today to Tennessean reporter Anita Wadhwani, who pointed me to this Beliefnet article about radical forgiveness in a blog post. I am astonished by two acts of forgiveness listed there:

The Amish of Nickel Mines, Pa. — a pacifist religious community in rural Lancaster County who practice a simple farming life without modern conveniences much the same as their 17th century Swiss-German forbears — suffered a shocking intrusion into their world when a local milkman, Charles Roberts, invaded a one-room schoolhouse, shooting 10 young girls, leaving five of them dead. During the ordeal, one of the girls, 13-year-old Marian Fisher, offered to be killed first in hopes that the others would be spared. A Beliefnet member wrote of this event: “I cannot ignore this unbelievable act of love by a girl this young. In my mind, this little girl did no more or no less than Jesus did for us on the cross.” Within hours of the shooting, the families of the children not only expressed their forgiveness of the killer but reached out to his family, giving food and raising money for his wife and children.

In a Beliefnet video interview, Herman Bontrager, a spokesman for the Amish of Nickel Mines, explained, “The Amish believe that we must forgive because we ourselves need to be forgiven. [They're] trying to live the way Jesus lived. He turned the other cheek, he told us to love everybody, to love our enemies." A Beliefnet member noted, “The message of forgiveness, rather than vengeance, goes to the heart of how we should behave toward each other. This is an extreme example of how true faith and true forgiveness can be awe-inspiring. If the Amish can forgive the man who killed their children, how much more should the rest of us be able to forgive the petty hurts and perceived insults we receive each day?”

I think this is an extraordinary act of compassion, and I am challenged by it. As I look back at an argument I had with my wife yesterday and a months-long disagreement with another friend earlier this year, I am awestruck by this act of kindness.

Considering recent events on the global stage, I wonder what life might look like if we as Americans had responded this way after 9-11 or if either the Israelis or Palestinians had the courage and the humility to respond this way. I wonder how Congress would look.

I cannot help but think that this is how God hopes that we will act toward each other. I believe that he knows that we will struggle--and frequently fail--in this effort, but to our own misfortune. I think maybe God wants us to act this way because of how it will make us feel, liberated by compassion, and because of how this kind of action transforms lives. I would love to know how the Amish and the Roberts family are doing months after this horrible crime, and I can only believe that both parties must be better off for the mercy and generosity extended by this small community of people. This is the path we are meant to follow.

The story of Rwandan holocaust survivor Immaculée Ilibagiza is equally astounding. I hope that all of us can learn to model even a fraction of this level of humility and humanity.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T16:08:00.000-06:00

I hope all of you have an excellent holiday, and here's my hope for every single one of us:

But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously — take God seriously. --Micah 6:8 (The Message)

God, thanks for everything. Please show mercy on all of us, no exceptions. Merry Christmas!!

What to do when you screw up

2006-12-23T07:41:00.000-06:00

The NHL suspended Nashville Predators forward Scott Nichol yesterday for nine games after Nichol blindsided another player, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jaroslav Spacek, on Thursday night. Nichol retaliated after Spacek drove him into the goalpost late in the Sabres' lopsided 7-2 victory over the Preds.

I can understand Nichol's response after Spacek's dangerous play, one that could have injured Nichol. Even though fighting is still a significant element in the NHL, striking someone when they are defenseless is wrong. I wish Nichol would have gotten Spacek's attention first before engaging him, but I applaud Nichol for how he handled yesterday's decision by the league:

"First, I offer my apologies to Jaroslav Spacek and am thankful that he was not hurt," Nichol said. "I have great respect for the game and my fellow players, and in the heat of the moment (Thursday) night, I lost my cool and reacted emotionally to being fouled. I am not proud of my actions, but I take full responsibility and accept the consequences. "I also apologize to my teammates, coaches, the organization and Predators fans, and look forward to returning to action and helping my team."

Nichol took responsibility for his actions, acknowledged what he did wrong, and accepted his punishment. He didn't pass blame or try to justify his actions. He just said, "mea culpa," and let it go.

I think it's refreshing to see a public figure these days just admit what he did wrong and accept responsibility without reservation. We all make mistakes, but not everyone knows how to own them when they happen. In my opinion, being a class act does not mean living perfectly. It does mean doing the right thing even when it isn't easy.

Imbeciles and fools unite

2006-12-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

I hope someone can appreciate the irony that I am linking to this Wall Street Journal editorial with this post. Read on if you are curious.

WSJ Assistant Editorial Features Editor Joseph Rago has strong criticisms for bloggers. We're bottom feeders, for one: (I suppose that's a harsher way of describing the Long Tail.)

The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps ... The larger problem with blogs, it seems to me, is quality. Most of them are pretty awful. Many, even some with large followings, are downright appalling.

Honestly, I think he's probably right. Meaningful content is a challenge for those of us who blog for enjoyment rather than for a living. So many blogs are created and then abandoned, and most of us (including me most of the time) are responding to news generated by the mainstream media, not sharing new information.

Rago playfully refers to bloggers as fools by quoting author Joseph Conrad. Blogs are, in his opinion and Conrad's words, "Written by fools to be read by imbeciles." I wonder if this is the whole truth, though. Will it always be this way? If blogging is peaking, as has been recently reported, will the cream rise to the surface of the crop? As Technorati has pointed out, "sheer dedication pays off over time" when it comes to blogging, and that may mean that blogging will improve as serious writers stick around and continue to get better at it. Let's hope so.

Don't get my hopes up

2006-12-21T11:18:00.000-06:00

That's what I'm trying to tell myself after a conversation about the Tennessee General Assembly last night. A well-connected friend tells me that Lt. Governor John Wilder is more than likely to retain his Senate speaker post in January. Tennessean columnist Larry Daughtrey seems to agree.

In my friend's opinion, that may not be a bad thing because of the bipartisanship Wilder has maintained by granting Republicans committee chairmanships in the past. Ron Ramsey, the current Republican challenger, isn't known for building bridges to the other side. Maybe my friend is right, but I have a hard time hoping for Wilder to remain in office.

According to this friend, there are two senators who can land the 17 votes needed to serve as speaker: Wilder and Randy McNally, a Republican who is more moderate and bipartisan than Ramsey, from my limited understanding of the Hill. Here's hoping McNally gets a shot.

What about Joe Haynes, who is attempting to unseat Wilder as the Democratic opponent? Here's where things might get really messy. If Ramsey were to run against Haynes, a 16-16 tie might leave the current speaker, Wilder, to cast the deciding vote. Guess what happens if Wilder refuses to vote? He remains as speaker, leaving Haynes and Ramsey on the outside looking in. Yep, that's the Tennessee State Senate for you.

Fourth grade, with beer

2006-12-21T11:02:00.000-06:00

"It's like fourth grade, with beer."

Someone used this phrase to describe adults playing kickball to me last night. I think that's a hilarious and accurate description. My last kickball game was surely in the 1980s, but I think it's great and quite amusing that kickball has been experiencing a resurgence over the past few years.

It's hilarious to me that there is a World Adult Kickball Association, but don't laugh too hard:

Whether it’s the game itself or the drinking, WAKA now has leagues in more than 20 states — from New Hampshire to New Mexico — with more than 20,000 players on 1,000 teams in 100 divisions. In the summer of 2005, the association even helped set up a league for Marines stationed in Fallujah — the Iraq Semper Fi Division...
And, as with any playground-style pursuit, kickball isn’t without its shouting matches. WAKA and DC Kickball, a smaller rival league, are currently caught up in a federal lawsuit, with WAKA charging the competition with copyright infringement (for using their rules) and defamation. WAKA is suing DC Kickball for more than a few weeks’ allowance — seeking $356,000 in compensatory and punitive damages...
WAKA held its ninth annual world championship, the Founders Cup, in Miami last July, and attracted more than 300 fans to most games.

I'm not sure why WAKA and DC Kickball haven't agreed to settle their differences on the field, but I guess it's really none of my business. The Nashville Sports League offers three separate divisions to help you with your kickball fix if you live here in town. The fellow who coined "fourth grade, with beer" was an NSL kickball veteran.

My memories of kickball are of being a pretty average player. I wasn't picked first, but I wasn't picked last. I remember demanding "re-rolls" when pitches weren't smooth enough--a common occurrence on our playground at school--and the rush of seeing the ball heading your way. It was a thrill to feel a kick send the ball rifling through the air. Those were the days. :)

Nashville's next mayor

2006-12-20T10:48:00.000-06:00

I'm encouraged that the field of candidates to become Nashville's next mayor is growing. A few months ago, there were three declared candidates, none of whom appealed to me. Now there are five community leaders who have announced for the race that have a reasonable opportunity to win next August.

This is progress, in my opinion. Nashville has been blessed with two strong mayors over four terms, and I think that these two pairs of shoes will be hard--and essential--to fill well. Beginning with Phil Bredesen's election in 1991 and continuing to Bill Purcell's current tenure, Nashville has had visionary leadership that has been a major factor in its substantial growth and development and its maturation into a more progressive city. It is important to continue that pattern, if you ask me.

It really wasn't all that long ago that Nashville had a major deficit in leadership in the office of mayor. It is hard to imagine Bill Boner running the city I call home today, and thank goodness for that. (If you are interested in more information, follow the Bill Boner link and be sure to read the three paragraphs beginning with "In 1987, Nashville Mayor ...")

I have not made up my mind regarding my vote for mayor next summer, and I sincerely want to have an open mind in considering all five major candidates. I'm going to share my impressions thus far, candid and limited as they currently are, and see how they evolve as I continue to learn more in the months ahead. Here goes:

David Briley, Metro Council member and originally a vice-mayor candidate: a progressive thinker with good intentions, but is he ready?
Bob Clement, former U.S. congressman: a career politician and an underwhelming candidate, in my opinion
Karl Dean, who announced yesterday: innovative, compassionate and progressive thinker who needs to increase name recognition in a hurry. (Hint: Karl, you need a Web site!)
Buck Dozier, Metro Fire Chief: I think Buck is an honest and respectable person. I am concerned that he is too conservative for a Nashville that is much more diverse than it was 20 years ago. I do like his education proposal.
Howard Gentry, current Metro Vice-Mayor: Howard is a well-respected leader and, by all impressions, a good man. I personally think he is not the best candidate because he is too mild and may not be able to build consensus across the city. I would be happy to see Nashville with a mayor who is a minority, but I don't think Howard is that mayor.

Now is a great time to visit the Web sites above and learn more about each candidate. There will be plenty of news and debate to color your impressions later, but take the time to form your own before the volume rises next spring.

Update: Kenneth Eaton, a longtime Nashville businessman, will announce his candidacy for mayor next month. His Web site has more information. Dave Pelton, a self-described energy and environmental policy expert, is also running.

Wilder watch

2006-12-18T11:58:00.000-06:00

Blogger Nathan Moore is reporting that Democrats in the Tennessee state Senate, including Senator Joe Haynes, may be working behind the scenes to defeat Lt. Governor John Wilder. From Moore's post, it appears that Haynes might be trying to convince party members to vote for Senator Ron Ramsey, Wilder's opponent for the speaker election.

I hope this rumor turns out to be true. As I've previously mentioned, I think Wilder is a poor choice for speaker, despite (in light of?) the fact that he has held this office for more than 35 years. My impressions are that he is nearly unintelligible when speaking on a regular basis and that he is focused almost exclusively in preserving his position and power, not on acting in the best interest of Tennesseans. I am admittedly not a fan of Senator Ramsey, either, but I would prefer to see him in the position over Wilder.

Hitting the ICE!

2006-12-16T11:54:00.000-06:00

Carrie and I recently visited the ICE! exhibit at the Opryland Convention Center. It's a pretty amazing display of nearly two million pounds of ice meticulously carved into shapes, creatures and structures, including three ice slides, a train and a gingerbread house. (Yes, that's Carrie sliding down one of the ice slides above.) This exhibit is beautiful and, of course, very cold. The staff will provide you with a blue parka to wear, but you will also be wise to bundle up on your own. This is a fun outing to get you in the holiday spirit.

The Office: So wrong, yet so right

2006-12-15T07:48:00.000-06:00

The Office, one of my favorite shows, serves as a vicarious thrill for me because its characters do things week in and week out that no one under any circumstances should do. It's like watching a car accident where the collisions are purely emotional and psychological. I often find myself simultaneously laughing out loud and wincing in embarrassment over what, typically, Dwight Schrute or Michael Scott have done.

Last night was no exception. I thought "A Benihana Christmas, Parts 1 & 2" was an outstanding episode that featured plenty of "no, they didn't" hijinks:

Dwight arriving at work and planting a goose that he hit with a car on Pam's desk. Toby revealing that Dwight has previously brought waterfowl to the office.
Angela's draconian party planning committee. Who expels a coworker from a party planning meeting and tells her, to her face, that all of her ideas are terrible?
Michael photoshopping himself into a picture of his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend Carol and her ex-husband taking their kids on a ski trip and sending it out as their Christmas card.
Michael buying an all-inclusive vacation to Jamaica and trying to surprise Carol with it with two days notice, after previously prematurely proposing in public weeks earlier. Equally bad were his invitations to Pam and to Cindy. (You have to love that Cindy still takes the bike after ditching Michael.)
Jim (and this is for you, Katherine Coble) shooting down Pam's Christmas present to him, a weeks-in-the-making gag at Dwight's expense, by saying that he needs to be more mature in his new position at work.
Kevin's karaoke version of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." Ouch.
My personal favorite: Michael not being able to distinguish between the two Japanese waitresses that he and Andy spontaneously invite to the party. I laughed and cringed when Michael leaned in to hug Cindy and proceeded to draw a line on her arm with magic marker to identify her. Wow, that was so bad but good.

One thing I love about this show is how it deals with stereotypes. It stares them right in the face and makes fun of the people who take them seriously. The Japanese waitresses weren't the ones who looked foolish. It was Michael for not being able to tell them apart. Michael's ignorance and awkwardness in outing homosexual coworker Oscar in the season premiere were equally funny and painful at the same time.

Our Christmas presents from The Office last night were a pair of cliffhangers to keep us interested until the show returns in January: Did Michael invite Jan to Jamaica, and was that her accepting the invitation on the phone? Will Jim leave Karen and reach out to Pam? There's nothing like a little workplace drama, especially when it's not your own.

The Blogosphere is falling

2006-12-14T07:42:00.000-06:00

According to research company Gartner, Inc., as reported by the Associated Press, blogging is so 2006. Or, at least it will be soon:

Could blogging be near the peak of its popularity? The technology gurus at Gartner Inc. believe so. One of the research company's top 10 predictions for 2007 is that the number of bloggers will level off in the first half of next year at roughly 100 million worldwide.
The reason: Most people who would ever dabble with Web journals already have. Those who love it are committed to keeping it up, while others have gotten bored and moved on, said Daryl Plummer, chief Gartner fellow.

"A lot of people have been in and out of this thing," Plummer said. "Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it."

I'm curious to see whether this pans out as Gartner expects, but they may well be right. As Technorati frequently reports, only a fraction of blogs are regularly updated. Technorati estimates that 55 percent of the 57-million-plus blogs it measures are "active," meaning that they have been updated within the past three months. I hardly consider one post within three months active. Only about three percent of blogs update daily, though that's a pretty high standard of activity. Weekly seems like a better balance to me, or at least monthly.

I think the point above about not having something to say is accurate. In searching for available blog names, I was amazed (and frustrated) by how many good names were taken by blogs that had not been updated in years. So many of them had one or just a few posts before the silence began.

I'm curious to see what this means for blogging in general. Even if the number of new blogs and bloggers plateaus as predicted, will blogging recede from our collective consciousness. It's awfully mainstream at this point. It seems like nearly everyone I know is at least familiar with blogging and have visited at least one or two. Many people I know are read blogs fairly often, so I don't know that the blogosphere is about to implode under its own weight or anything. Of course, Gartner isn't really predicting that, but their prognostications do leave me wondering where all of this is heading. I guess we'll see.

It's no musica...

2006-12-14T07:36:00.000-06:00

... and I'm very relieved about that. I don't agree with Billy Graham on every spiritual issue, but I am glad that LifeWay decided to keep his likeness (above) clothed in the new statue unveiled yesterday downtown. I have to say that it does look very much like Graham, at the very least.

I honestly think this sculpture is pretty gaudy, though I am sure it is well-intentioned. Christianity places so much significance on humility and compassion--as does Graham--so it seems odd to me to create a colossal version of the beloved evangelist to tower over passersby for years to come. It seems a bit ironic, and almost intimidating, to me, and that really isn't Graham's nature, in my opinion. As I said above, there are plenty of things I don't agree with Graham on, but I do think he is a dedicated, sincere and kindhearted man. I'm not sure this attempt at tribute lives up to that legacy.

(For the record, I love that Musica is on Music Row, if for nothing else that it offends some local folks with sensibilities that may be a bit too conservative. I just don't want to see Billy Graham naked, and I think I'm in the majority on that issue.)

Let's hope Wilder is wrong

2006-12-13T10:13:00.000-06:00

According to the City Paper, Lieutenant Governor John Wilder claims he will be re-elected speaker of the state Senate in January. I hope he is wrong.

Wilder (D-Mason) has served as speaker of the Senate and therefore lieutenant governor since 1971, surviving attempts by both Republicans and Democrats to oust him. The most recent effort came in 2005 when, with the Republicans holding a 17-16 majority, the GOP tried to oust him, but two Republican senators crossed party lines and voted for Wilder.

In January, another vote can be held to elect the Senate speaker, and again the Republicans hold a 17-16 majority. One Republican who voted for Wilder in 2005, Sen. Mike Williams (R-Maynardville), remains noncommittal on whom he will support in January – Wilder or the Republican nominee, Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville).

Senator Williams has every right to vote for whichever candidate he thinks is in the state's best interests, and I sincerely hope that he will not vote for Wilder on those grounds. As I've previously mentioned, in my opinion it is time for someone else to hold this important position. This is not a partisan issue for me: It's more important to me that the speaker be someone other than Wilder than anything else. I very much agree with Liz Garrigan's recent column on this subject.

Very well said...

2006-12-12T15:33:00.000-06:00

... by News2 faith and ethics videojournalist Jamey Tucker:

But then again, there's nothing Christian or even religious about the Christmas tree. Is there? Its roots are in paganism. A tree is nothing more than a traditional Christmas symbol. Saying a Christmas tree represents the birth of Jesus is like saying a bunny represents the crucifixion.
I'm all for the public display of religious symbols. Faith is a fundamental part of our freedoms in America. Put up a menorrah. Put up a winter solstice plaque. Put up a Christmas tree. We shouldn't be offended by seeing these symbols.

I agree, and Jamey's words remind me of author Robert Fulghum's advice in his book All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned In Kindergarten:

Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out in the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Thanks for the good reminder for all of us, Jamey, that maybe we shouldn't take things quite so seriously. (Psst...don't tell anyone that Fulghum is a Unitarian. That will really freak the War on Christmas crowd out. They love buying and reading his book until they discover the truth.)

Common sense 1, War on Christmas 0

2006-12-12T07:37:00.000-06:00

The Christmas trees are back at the Seattle airport. I'm glad to see that cooler heads have prevailed in what had become a silly and sensationalized situation.

A key element in moving forward will be to work with [Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky] and other members of the community to develop a plan for next year's holiday decorations at the airport," the [Port of Seattle commission] statement said...

"We are not going to be the instrument by which the port holds Christmas hostage," [Bogomilsky's lawyer, Harvey Grad] said, emphasizing the rabbi never sought removal of the trees, but addition of the menorah.

The rabbi had received "all kinds of calls and emails," many of them "odious," Grad said, adding he was "trying to figure out how this is consistent with the spirit of Christmas."

I'm glad that everyone involved appears to have looked for a reasonable solution to this dilemma, even if it was a bit late in coming. I agree with Mr. Grad, too: Why are we so quick to defend Christmas and react in anger when it is "threatened," yet so quick to abandon the values (generosity, goodwill, hope and love) that it celebrates? Christmas is not a defenseless child, as Jesus was in the manger. It can be a reminder that we belong to something much greater than ourselves and that reaching out with compassion and kindness is the best way to live.

Who's helping who?

2006-12-12T07:35:00.000-06:00

A few years ago, I heard a story on NPR entitled, "Volunteering on the wrong day." It explained how well-intentioned people inadvertently make the holidays tougher on nonprofit organizations, especially soup kitchens and homeless missions, by donating their time on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Instead of receiving much-needed help, the organizations have to try to find responsibilities for the volunteers because available hands heavily outweigh the amount of work to be done.

Jeffrey at The Gathering raised an interesting and related question recently: The Christmas Spirit--Why Not All Year? I don't know the answer, but I do think the challenge is for us as individuals to look for ways to help others out of sincere desire, not just because the calendar suggests that it's the right thing to do. Soup kitchens are often desperate for help and for financial support in July, not in December.

Many people remember people in need and good causes when the holiday season reminds us. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm not suggesting we stop promoting that element of Christmas. Maybe the concept of Christmas in July, which is generally more punchline than passion, can teach us something: Help when the need is there, not when it's convenient.

Rabbi 1, Christmas 0

2006-12-11T07:30:00.000-06:00

Uh oh. The War on Christmas, which had previously been thought to be retreating this year, is rearing its ugly head in the Pacific Northwest.

All nine Christmas trees have been removed from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport instead of adding a giant Jewish menorah to the holiday display as a rabbi had requested...

"We decided to take the trees down because we didn't want to be exclusive," said airport spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt. "We're trying to be thoughtful and respectful, and will review policies after the first of the year."
Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who made his request weeks ago, said he was appalled by the decision. He had hired a lawyer and threatened to sue if the Port of Seattle didn't add the menorah next to the trees, which had been festooned with red ribbons and bows.

I personally think that this "War on Christmas" bit is quite silly. The overwhelming majority of our population claims Christianity as its faith with varying levels of devotion, and I see nothing wrong with acknowledging and respecting other traditions during what is intended to be a peaceful and warmhearted time of year.

This situation in particular seems like it could have easily been avoided. Why did Rabbi Bogomilsky resort to the threat of legal action? Surely a conversation could have been had in June--or in January 2007--about adding a menorah for the next holiday display. Would it have really hurt anything to go one more holiday season without a menorah when the airport has displayed only trees for decades?

Here's the sticking point that appears to have motivated the airport's decision to remove its trees: Its lawyers advised displaying symbols from various religions, not just Christianity and Judaism. I have no issue with that, but surely the airport could have agreed in writing to begin displaying symbols for other faiths starting with the 2007 holiday season and showcased only the trees and the menorah this time around.

This just seems to me like a lot of silliness, wasted anger and, worst of all, more fodder for the culture wars to me. Let the boycott on flying to Seattle begin! ;)

Plain English, please

2006-12-10T10:43:00.000-06:00

I'm encouraged by the recent news that Washington state is mandating that all state agencies communicate in plain English. I have loved writing from an early age, and I think we as a society are sorely in need of simplifying how we communicate with each other in written form.

Talk to the public as you would talk to any other person--simply, and in plain language. In the 18 months since Gov. Christine Gregoire ordered all state agencies to adopt "plain talk" principles, more than 2,000 state employees have attended classes on writing letters, announcements and documents in everyday language. So words such as abeyance, cease and utilize are out, replaced by suspension, stop and use.

"Simple changes can have profound results," said Janet Shimabukuro, manager of the Washington Department of Revenue taxpayer services program. "Plain talk isn't only rewriting, it's rethinking your approach and really personalizing your message to the audience and to the reader."

[Gov.] Gregoire says it's "a long-overdue initiative, but it's bearing fruit ... When we just talk in a way that takes our language, government language, and throws it out, and talk in language everyone understands, we get a whole lot more done."

Legalese and "corporatespeak" have really hurt our ability to communicate with each other, in my opinion. I think these forms of writing have become popular, perhaps, because of a general lack of trust between the person or organization communicating and their intended audience. I'm concerned that we've generally become more focused on covering our own asses than on sharing our thoughts and ideas. I hope that can change.

CNET responds to Kim's death

2006-12-08T17:12:00.000-06:00

I was glad to see this today. I have been very saddened by this story, and I know many others have, too.

No diving

2006-12-08T13:04:00.000-06:00

No kidding. Great picture from the top of the Viridian. What a view. By the way, why is there water in the pool right now, 13 days before winter?

Please, please listen

2006-12-08T10:07:00.000-06:00

These words are from today's Washington Post regarding the Iraq Study Group report. I admit that I am biased against President Bush at this point, but regardless I sincerely hope that he will listen to outside counsel regarding alternatives for Iraq.

There's only one reader who really counts, though, and I doubt he'll be impressed. The Decider isn't in the habit of letting mere facts get in the way of blind conviction...
The document concludes with 79 recommendations, most of which are eminently reasonable and none of which will get us out of Iraq overnight. The president will probably reject some out of hand -- talking directly with Syria and Iran, for example. And while it would be good if the president finally realized that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would lower the temperature throughout the Middle East, I'm pretty sure it will take more than a phone call to persuade the Israeli government to give up the Golan Heights.
[Group member Vernon] Jordan said that when the members of the panel met with Bush on Wednesday, the president's attitude was encouraging. "My mama used to say that a lot of people listen, but they don't hear," Jordan said. "Bush both listened and heard us."

I genuinely hope that the U.S. can made an authentic and innovative change in its Iraq strategy that will gradually and eventually lead to a safer, more prosperous and ultimately independent nation where Iraq now stands.

A little joy from copyranter

2006-12-08T07:16:00.000-06:00

I just stumbled upon copyranter's blog tonight, and his stuff is cracking me up. Granted, given that he posts frequently on Gawker, I may be the last person on the Internet to have found his blog. That doesn't matter to me because his site is still hilarious. Yes, it appeals to my sandpaper-dry sense of humor, but here goes five things that nearly made me snort Coke (zero) tonight:

Ketel One (I don't like their ads, either.)
Blackout advice
Upgrade your relationship
Tell us what you think (Boy, is he right about the initial thing. That bugs me everywhere I see it.)
An Army of One Model/Actress

For the record, copyranter is the first person I am aware of who has referred to the Snuggle fabric softener bear as an "asswipe." That has to count for something.

Really helping the homeless

2006-12-07T11:18:00.000-06:00

The Tennessean addressed the issue of homelessness downtown today in today's issue. Local blogger Kevin Barbieux responded with some words of wisdom:

"[T]hankfully, we all are quickly re-learning that harassing the homeless, shooing them away, or trying to sweep them under the proverbial rug, just doesn't get the results we want...

Hopefully, everyone will quickly get to the point of admitting that the best thing for everyone, the only true workable solution, is to give the services to the homeless that will actually lead to them getting off the streets and on to better lives.

The Rescue Mission has been on operation for more than 50 years, the Campus For Human Development for 20 years, and yet have we seen any real change in the homeless plight by these organizations? A new approach is needed, such as could become reality if the Nashville Homelessness Commission would actually achieve it's goals. The best hope for all concerned lies with the Commission. If somebody would light a fire under their collective rear-ends, we'd see some real and positive changes taking place."

I'm familiar with both the Mission and the Campus, and I think they do meaningful and important work. Kevin has a good point, though: There is still a sizable homeless population in Nashville that needs help despite all of this good work. My question to him and in general is what are these "real and positive changes" that are needed? Affordable housing often comes up quickly in discussions about the homeless, but what would that look like specifically? What specifics might help the problem that aren't currently in place?

The quote of the day, in my opinion, comes from guitar manufacturer George Gruhn, who is quoted in the Tennessean story: "When someone's sleeping at my back door and defecating there, do I like it? No." I'd have to agree with that.