Election '04

Let's all play nice. :^)

for fun, see which candidate most closely matches your opinions.

Comments

[Gryka]

I tested for my candidate and it turns out I have to vote for Kucinich. Funny, I haven't considered him at all. The premise of the test seems to be off somehow. Perhaps the candidate's views don't have to match closely those of the voter's?

BTW Glimmung, I've heard recently that Kucinich is a "populist liberal", which was immediately corrected as "liberal populist". I've been trying to figure out what these terms meant in general, and what they meant in his context. For the life of me I can't wrap my mind around it – every time I try it comes out as a contradiction. (Reminds me of "compassionate conservative.") Do you have a clue?

Oh and about dailyKos – nice job! :^)

[Glimmung]

Gryka,

Just about everyone I know (plus the people at Whiskey Bar) who tried it also came up Kucinich. It surprised many of them, though it didn't surprise me.

As to the labels, I guess one has to decide whether one can be a populist without being a liberal (I think so, because Pat Buchanan is often considered a populist). So it's not the case that all populists are liberals, but is it the case that any populists are liberals? I think so, because my understanding of "populism" is that it emphasizes the defense of the vast economic middle and lower classes against the elites.

I think some conservatives are genuinely compassionate, they believe that their positions are truly in the best interest of the unfortunate. However, so many pretend to have compassion who don't, or call themselves conservatives when they are not, that I understand suspicion of the term.

For DailyKos, were you referring to the global climate change discussions? If so, if anyone is interested, I posted this. I actually contacted MeteorBlades, Gryka, because I wanted more attention drawn to the story, and I knew it was right up his alley. He posted this, giving me a mention.

[Gryka]

Glimmung, I see populism in terms of Herzen's definition (narodnichestvo = populism) as a rule of majority (with implied radicalism), and I associate it with socialism, fascism, neo-politics, Buchanan, Bush, and never ever under any circumstances with liberalism, as liberalism seems to me to be the opposing force of populism. Liberalism defends and promotes individual rights, while populism defends and promotes the rights of a majority (where individual or minority rights are automatically truncated).

A perfect example of my worries comes to play when speaking of environmentalism. From liberal perspective, an individual has a right to his/her natural environment. Which implies concern and wide protection of environment. But the moment we introduce populism to the mix, the environment may no longer be important at all. After all if the majority drives SUVs, then the right to drive them outweighs the right of the individual to clean air and unpolluted environment. See why I worry?

When Clinton signed NAFTA without any additional provisions, I accused him of being a neo-liberal and a populist. Bush's tax cuts as well as the war effort (at the beginning when indisputable patriotism, the major attribute of populism, was being stressed) are the cornerstones of his populist politics. I see populism as a threat to democracy, so when I hear of Kucinich being called a populist liberal, I worry. Is the Democratic Party ready to abandon liberalism for populism?

[Yeti]

I generally have a hard time understanding "isms", but if Populism is a rule of the majority, then it seems to me that this would be the purest form of democracy, no? I mean, if we put every decision the government makes up to a popular vote, then by definition, the majority would always win, right?

By contrast, wouldn't anarchy be the purest form of preservation of an individual's rights?

[Yeti]

I did the test and came up with Edwards. I must have entered something wrong.

[Glimmung]

Yeti,

I only matched Edwards at 73%. Thus, it seems that he may more of a centrist than either of us had assumed. Of course, we know nothing about how the candidates' positions were determined for the purposes of this game. It may be possible to poke around the AOL website and learn this but I haven't been able to take the time.

I'm guessing that your ranking might have been Edwards 1, Lieberman 2, Bush 3, Clark 4. Close?

[Gryka]

:^) Why do you think you've entered something wrong? Is it because your candidate didn't turn out to be Kucinich? ;^)

(How close were you to Edwards, 80%, 90%? Should I go try Republicans now? ;^) )

As to your question about democracy – it doesn't simply mean the rule of majority (although populists seem to think that).

In Greek, democracy means the rule of the people (demos-people, cratos-rule). In the case of Athenians it meant male citizens would gather in the Assembly and make laws. They would discuss the current issues and, most importantly, each citizen was by law allowed to speak his mind on the subject. Does it mean they ruled by majority? Well, yes. Except not one majority but rather many different majorities that were transpiring from each discussion. The moment ONE majority actually developed (i.e., discussion ceased), they killed Socrates. If I were to put it in terms of my worries, I'd say, when they voted Socrates guilty, they weren't following the rules of democracy anymore, they were following the rule of populism.

Later humanity developed two other forms of democracy: representative and constitutional. In both cases, the new democratic systems were invented to prevent the Socrates affair from occurring again, that is, to prevent a single majority from forming.

As Ortega y Gasset said "The well being of democracies regardless of their type and status is dependent on one small technical detail: The right to vote. Everything else is secondary." So, it's not about the outcome of the vote. It's about THE RIGHT TO SPEAK. I'm not a member of majority and yet my vote counts. That's democracy: the fact that other fellow Athenians hear my voice and actually consider it! (Hence Bush was wrong when claimed that anti-war protesters on the streets were a sign of democracy. They would have been that sign only if he actually listened to what they were saying and addressed their concerns.) It was ONE voice that ended McCarthyism, not majority. It could not happen in any other system (Zhang Yi Mou's "Hero" has a scene that beautifully illustrates that).

Anarchy has a Greek root anarchos meaning "without authority". Anarchists are basically people who think that government in any form is harmful and unnecessary. They think that crime is a product of property and authority, a result of man-made laws. In anarchist society humans follow their natural inclination to help each other (for example - per Chomsky - the spontaneous anarchistic society of the revolutionaries during the Spanish civil war in 1936).

Per your words, the purest form of preservation of individual rights is liberalism. To quote Gasset again: "Liberalism is the supreme form of generosity; it is the right which the majority concedes to minorities and hence it is the noblest cry that has ever resounded on this planet."

I have to run, more will have to wait...

Hello Guys!

Firstly, I'm sorry I haven't posted in many many many many days! More about that in a moment, but now: Yeti, CONGRATULATIONS! :^D Is Littlefoot (not to be confused with Little Feat) a girl or a boy? How are you adjusting to sharing your den with a demanding roommate? And you simply must tell me how it feels to be a father. Oh yeah I heard it's a life-transforming-event, but does it feel like your heart wants to escape your ribcage, do you sigh a lot in amazement? Anyway, congratulations! (BTW, I do hope Littlefoot's a girl and you keep her away from the Barbies... ;^) )

The reason I stayed away from the forum is that I traveled to Poland. I returned last weekend and now I'm trying to fight the jetlag. Not as easy as it used to be in my younger days. I asked my husband to look in on you from time to time but he's told me nothing. Men! I don't understand why men had never developed snooping skills! (Yes, that was a generalization. Sorry about it, but the lack of long nose does seem to plague your kind and I don't understand why. Just try to ask any man to describe what he saw or what his friends told him. It's like bleeding an oyster! :^) ) Anyway, I'm baaaack! It doesn't feel like it, but the stamps in the passport tell me so.

I must say that Poland has become a strange place to me. How many times I stopped half way, mid-sentence, because something else astonished me? It seems now like almost every sentence, every each way. Oddly enough I feel more American now than ever. It will pass. I am a notorious outsider after all.

The last weekend I was dragged to the church by my mother. Her, very devout nowadays, religion has been overgrown by superstition and she thought going to the church would make me immune from all evil at least for the duration of my flight. Not that I mind. But what I saw and heard was rather disturbing. More so because it all happened in the church I went to when I was a child and I remember it as a welcoming place (considering my odd religious background it was welcoming indeed). The sermon was about politics and ecology. Firstly the priest announced that every politician has a devil in him. He shouted it actually. And his shouting wasn't the only thing that made it a categorical statement. Then he yelled at the ecologists who would not allow building of a new chapel in the nearby ancient grove. What values these people have to put some trees over the house of god? he yelled. My father and I walked out in the middle of the sermon. We were followed by the flutter of my sister's running. You always leave me behind, she complained, can't you once let me in on your plan? The truth is she tends to side with mother so when we bolt we tend to bolt alone. As we waited for the rest of the family, the people filed out the church looking at us with open disgust. Only 2 older men came over to talk to my father and they both felt compelled to congratulate him on his courage. What courage? I don't live there, my sister's business is elsewhere and my father, also a visitor, is retired. I should say that it was all happening in the village of my grandparents where buzzard Tekla's grave is still adorned by a, sizable by now, linden tree.

Anyway, I really miss the old parish priest. He would have never yelled. He'd start every other sentence with 'consider...' and he'd have made this cook bake cookies for the kids so he could give them away after each Sunday mass, meanwhile asking every parishioner about his life and health - it seemed he knew everyone very closely and cared for their well being. Even St Francis figure that stood in the entry hall was moved somewhere to the back. I went back into the church looking for St Christopher, who is a patron of travelers, but my mother stopped me half-way thinking I was going to engage the priest into a 'lively' conversation. I could not understand why she'd think I'd want to talk to a guy who hates everyone standing in his way and she didn't believe me that I was looking for St Christopher. The gulf between my mother and me is the size of the Atlantic.

Well, this story describes well how I feel about my trip to Poland but also about what is happening here. On the plane I was reading the NY Times. It seems people here also forgot to put the word 'consider' in the beginning of every other sentence. A genuine hero from the war is being zealously stripped from his heroism because he dared to run for presidency. A story of a dead young and idealistic soldier is told only because he happened to be a millionaire and a sport figure. A woman who photographs with piety the coffins of soldier bodies returning home is fired together with her husband who had nothing to do with anything. American Jews and Poles fight over the heritage of a man whose only goal in life was to keep them friends and brothers.

Why is all of this happening? Is it the beginning of the new century that we makes us close ranks and yell at each other? How did we end up here? Why can't a priest see that destroying ancient trees to build a chapel to god is exchanging one temple for a lesser one? Why can't we keep our politics to the merits of the opponent's policies? Why can't we see heroism for what it is and leave it at that? Why can't we respect the dead for the best they tried to accomplish? And what happened to our oratorical skills, why have we stopped teaching it?

Sorry for my depressing thoughts. I'll get nicer as soon as I find my outsider's bearings again... Meanwhile, it's good to speak to you all again.

Gryka

[Gryka]

Ups, the above was me, of course! It's the jetlag I'm sure... ;^)

[Yeti]

Gryka,

It's good to hear from you. I'll write more when I have time, but for now, let me say fatherhood has been a life-transforming-event. It feel like my heart wants to escape my ribcage, and I sigh a lot in amazement. :)

Your description of reading the NY Times on the plane ride home reminds me of when Bigfoot and I came back from our trip to Austria. It's really depressing to return to a country that is so wasteful and so frenzied by sensational media... (a.k.a. a sociological "hell-hole")

More Later...

[Yeti]

Littlefoot (not to be confused with Little Feat) is rather a sensitive child. High maintenance. Most of the time Littlefoot looks concerned, but occasionally, there will be that smile or giggle or that wide-eyed look that makes all the late night feedings and the poo and the gnashing of teeth worth it....

The poo isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had never changed a diaper before Littlefoot, and now I'm an expert. Starts out the first week like black tar. Then it slowly turns green, then brown, then a yellowish brown with what look like sesame seeds, and then finally the yellow-brown poo with curd. (for those of you who were wondering.)

It's not so bad, really, except when Littlefoot starts screaming for no apparent reason. Fresh diaper, full belly, being held.... not good enough! That's when the long-suffering part begins. Eventually, though, the child wears itself out and sleeps like a baby!

--You know, that reminds me of something I heard on NPR. Did you hear the anecdote about Bush "sleeping like a baby"?

One day in February 2003, with America on the verge of a war with Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell was reminded that, notwithstanding the stress, President George W. Bush was in bed by ten o'clock every night and slept like a baby. "I sleep like a baby, too," Powell replied. "Every two hours I wake up screaming!"

Later, Guys.

--Oh, and by the way, I hope you will be planting trees on Friday (Arbor Day)

[Gryka]

Hi Yeti! I missed you! :^)

Once in Poland I was buying something to drink. They have this very tasty mint-apple drink. I was insistent on it. They didn't have it. The store manager said something to the effect that there were plenty of other drinks there. My sister jumped in and answered, she's very particular about it, and she wants the mint-apple juice. His expression didn't change as he answered: Tell her to bite a tic-tac and follow with a drink of apple juice - that should be about the same. :^)

That's when I thought of you Yeti. ;^)

As to the 'hell-hole' – it spreads; it already passed thru the eastern Polish borders. Austria has been swallowed some years ago. That's why it's so depressing – no escape.

Powell should have resigned at the beginning of the war. Can you imagine how powerful he would have been now? And maybe the war wouldn't have happened? Oh, the cursed hindsight!

And this too will pass, Yeti. Your baby will stop crying. Eventually... If it's any consolation, Littlefoot has to develop vocal cords and that can't be done without crying. The choices are as follow: loose sleep now or lots of money on voice therapists later.

My neighbor who just had a baby insists on washing reusable diapers (better for the environment). So you could've'd it worse if your wife insisted on doing so. Yet, I must admit there is something very calm and reassuring in rows of diapers drying in the backyard. The neighbor says it's not a big problem and her husband concurs, but it's been only a month or so.

No, I won't be planting trees but my husband volunteered us to clean the river front near our area. That's on Saturday. My neighbor, who is one of the organizers, brought us eye-hurting yellow vests (he's looking forward to seeing us in them, so he says – funny, very funny). Meanwhile I'm working on my garden. Radishes should be eatable beginning of the next week and the lettuce we ate yesterday. My lawn is full of dandelions and violets neither of which I planted. I'm considering letting them be. They look nice and my younger cat loves the yellow flowers. The older one sits under a hollyhock bush and watches birds. I'm considering buying a lorgnette for him. Anyway, neighbors say dandelions can't go unchecked but they said it about sorrel and mint also and they were wrong. Spring is busy but nice.

I think I'll go have a nap now. I'm like my cats these days.

P.S.: Glimmung, if you are there: have you ever encountered ringworm in your cats? My younger one is suspected to have it and the vet is scaring me that I'll have to wash everything in my house with a bleach solution. I do hope it's allergic reaction not a ringworm! I would appreciate your advice. Any advice... (If he's got it thou, then I'm a carrier already, which is putting a damper on the Saturday cleaning and I already have a yellow vest! Hmm...)

[Glimmung]

Gryka,

Sorry not to answer sooner!

Briefly, we've only dealt with ringworm once, and that was 17-18 years ago. We had multiple cats even then, but all we did was give pills to the affected one, and we had no further trouble. I looked at a few websites, and they do seem to want people to go to extremes - but one also made the comment that most cases run their course in 4 months or so, treatment or no. I might restrict the amount of your house that an affected cat has access to, to reduce the area of concern, and you should probably be diligent about washing your hands after handling him. The constant bleaching etc they recommend seems excessive to us - but one thorough cleaning might be a good idea. In short, though, we're no experts on this.

Not too many years after our brief encounter, Debby got some on her arm. We didn't know what it was, and the young doctor didn't either - so he ordered a biopsy! Our vet laughed and laughed when he heard, and said any doctor our age, and most vets, would have known immediately what it was.

You've probably looked at the net already, but here, and here.

So happy you could make the trip to Poland!

I'll write more soon I hope.

[Gryka]

Glimmung, thanks for your advice. Especially the second link was helpful. I had such hard time estimating the level of the threat. My friend, who is a trained nurse, stopped appearing at my home since the suspicion surfaced, so I thought it was really serious.

It's the first time I read ringworm goes away without treatment. Now, I feel foolish for worrying. Anyway, I got the test results back and it seems it's not ringworm (it looked exactly like on the picture in the second link, more so because my cat is black). So I feel even more foolish. I always panic needlessly when it comes to health. Oh well...

Aaah, Poland. The trip was full of very unusual experiences... Now that I adjusted to the new time zone and haven't yet been assigned a big project at work, it'd be a good time to sort it out, instead I just keep reliving the trip.

[t]

test

I can't seem to post from this computer. I'm getting an error message that says my IP address is on a list of potential spammers.

Any ideas?

-Yeti

[Yeti]

test

[Glimmung]

Yeti,

You said "this computer" - are you trying to post from a computer other than your usual one?

[michael]

I must tell you Gryka that I envy you your trip to Poland. I haven't been there for three years and I won't be going any time soon. I'm planning on inviting my mother over here for the first time somewhere in September.

[Glimmung]

Yeti,

I checked and I see that you are posting from your usual IP address. If you keep having this problem, let me know and I'll ask the TypePad folks about it.

OK. TypePad just put this up on their site within the last couple hours. According to them, it's possible you have been infected with something called on open proxy.

Gryka might be able to tell you more about this?

[Gryka]

Gryka tells more ;^):

As open relays have become increasingly blacklisted and closed, spammers have turned to other ways to send their spam, such as open or insecure proxies. Proxies are normally used to route data from a LAN to the Internet. (What does the proxy do exactly? It receives all http requests (clicks) from your browser then sends those requests to remote sites for you, returning the results to your browser window. Hence, the remote site receives requests from proxy not your network connection.) However, if misconfigured proxies can be abused to route data from the Internet into the LAN, or even to another part of the Internet. Spammers sometimes use an open proxy to send spam using a mail server on the LAN, or to anonymously abuse a mailserver elsewhere on the Internet.

If you have been told that you have an open proxy but you didn't even know you have a proxy, open or otherwise, you may have a spam trojan. Update and run your anti-virus program. Also run your disk cleanup utility (under System Tools). That should do it even for spies if your anti-virus program is strong, however to be sure run SpyBot S&D. If you don't have it, download it here.

Good luck Yeti!

[Gryka]

I'm sorry for my very lousy explanation of the open proxy. I must've been more stunned by Michael's run-away rhetoric than I thought.

I described already what a proxy is. Now, an open proxy is a server to which you connect to without loging your name and password (accessible to everyone) while a misconfigured proxy is a regular proxy that is open by a programming error.

An open proxy can offer non-transparency (anonymity) to user: it replaces the user's IP with its own and since it doesn't keep a log, no one can really check who did what and when. Beware that using unauthorized open proxy could be a class II felony and that the gov is watching for every new open proxy that shows on the internet. The server itself may not keep a log of comings and goings, but it's an open proxy, you may be observed. Btw, I can't imagine how running a free open proxy could be feasible or why a user would pay for an open proxy, so truly beware.

Most open proxies are simply misconfigured servers. My husband's company got banned from internet for a time because their server got scanned and was being used as an open proxy to spam others. This was a very messy thing for them.

How do you find out if you're connected to an open proxy? When a proxy server is closed it will either force you to connect from only one IP or a range of IP addresses, or it will require you to use a user name and have a password to connect.

Yeti, after fixing your spam trojan, make sure you visit the website(s) the error message listed before you try posting. You'll have to remove the block by login in at the sites listed.

Well, I think that's a little better explanation. (Yeti, good luck again!)

[Yeti]

test

Success!

It seems I had a spy! I went to Trend Micro and used their "House Call" utility, and it found and removed a piece of "malware" from my computer.

(I tend to post at work, so I tried posting from someone else's computer, and it worked. So I was able to confine the problem to my own computer.)

At any rate, I seem to be back in business.

--No time left, however, to read or post so I'll catch up later.

--Thanks for the help, Gryka!