(c) Mark Thiele, (cc) Attribution, Non-commercial, Non-derivative 2.0”

via Daring Fireball

At the Libertarian Party of Maine’s convention this Saturday, I intend to run for the Chairman.

However, since I’m the person who has put this convention together, with no input from the rest of the estranged leadership, I have this nagging feeling that I’m staging a coup. So I’m hoping that someone else will also seek the chairmanship so that there will be a choice, and that I wouldn’t win by default (assuming I win).

Another potential strike against me is that I had been chairman before for about a year in which the only activity we had was a single picnic. However, that was a situation where at a convention Mark Cenci was departing from the chairmanship, and no one, but no one was stepping forward to take the job. After several rounds of no one nibbling, I reluctantly stepped forward, as I did not want to see the LPME go away.

So, unprepared, I took the chairmanship. Worse, my personal life was crumbling apart. Nothing scandalous, just a marriage falling apart, and my being seriously depressed. For the longest time I was of little good to anybody much less the LPME.

I’m sure the other members of LPME leadership have their own tales to tell, and in some cases, it’ll be as simple as that they never heard back from anyone themselves.

But with all that prologue, what do I see for the future of the party?

• Recruiting and training future party leaders. We should never have a convention where we are begging people to stepping forward to take on roles. It would be nice to have some competition for a change.
• Recruiting candidates and developing support systems for them. As much as we need people to run for office. Getting people trained to assist them in filing reports, petitioning, fund raising, media, etc. is also important. In my two runs for the Legislature, I was a one-man-band, and I feel my campaigns suffered for it.
• Recuiting new members. The classic form of outreach for the LP has been our Operation Politically Homeless booths. It’s my hope that we can set these up at fairs and get enough volunteers to man them. Especially in this age of Tea Parties, there is a demand for something more than just “Brand D” and “Brand R”, this will be very effective.
• Communitation. Regular Press releases, newsletters, website updates, social networking, meet ups, are amongst the tools we should be using to keep up the lines of communication amongst members and leadership.

Furthermore, Executive Committee meetings must be set to a default location and time at a regular interval, so that there will always be a next meeting on the schedule, that if individual leaders find themselves unable to attend meetings, the remaining ones have enough know-how to carry on business.

If not elected to the chair, I will gladly seek another role, either as vice-chair, or another term as Treasurer. I only want to see the LPME back in action, and growing again. Leadership does not require authority, just action.

In fact all of the above points can be boiled down that we need to be acting. Not sitting back, bemoaning the state of things. Not arguing over differences about the finer points of libertarian philosophy.

It’s about action.

More later.

When we have a terrorist attack, the Democrats always ask, ‘What did we do to provoke it? Why do they hate us?’: “The Democrats immediately shifted into the theory that anger over the bill is simply not allowed. They merged that anger with actual violence, and they took whatever reports and threats of violence they could find and, in turn, merged them with the anger over the bill.

***

Can we identify neutral principles about anger and violence? How much free expression of anger do we accept in our opponents? When will we listen to it as part of a valuable debate? When do we stigmatize it as part of a system of violence? If the answer to the last question is whenever it serves our political interests to do so, then we are making propaganda.

The right has, from time to time, overblown a threat or act of violence on the left. It’s now coming to bite the Tea Partiers in the butt tenfold.

Normally I’d just consider this the usual feedback loop of crudeness and disingenuousness in politics. However, this time seems a bit different. People who I trust to have good B.S. filters under normal circumstances, are falling for the idea that the Tea Parties are an unruly lot, defining them by the fringe of the fringe.

I fear for the freedom of political expression. In such a climate, the potential is there for opportunists to use this to pass laws that stifle citizen political activity.

But this does go to show that protests are very limited in what they can achieve. Tea Party passion needs to lead into political action.

At the upcoming Maine Libertarian Party convention, I hope that we’ll see some of those Tea Party people show up and take ownership of the political process, and be more than customers of it waiting at the complaint desk.

From a comments thread whene I go on for paragraphs over a single snark by the Angry Drunk:

Shawn, I’m done “debating” you. Seriously, fuck off.

Yeah, I’ve been blathering on a bit much in comment threads lately.

Maybe some of that should be coming home to this blog instead of wearing out my welcome elsewhere.

Please don’t get offended on my behalf. Expletive laced snark is Angry Drunk’s style. As one of the Angry Mac Bastards, it’s a style I enjoy listening to.

via Virgina Postrel

There is bubbling speculation that could be the herald of the next great age of comics.

The Chicago Sun-Time’s tech columnist, Andy Ihnatko (who’s a fellow comic book geek), pieces together clues that suggest the seemingly mythical Apple tablet computer may be on the horizon, and will have support for digital comics downloads. Revolutionizing digital comics the same way that Apple did for digital music.

From Andy’s Sun-Times column:

Apple’s upcoming tablet computer (whoops, “rumored” upcoming tablet) just got a little more interesting: there are signs that the company is getting into the digital comic book market.

Which is tantamount to saying “Apple is helping to create a digital comic book market.”

The key to this is an existing digital comics outfit, LongBox, who may have a relationship with Apple much like how Audible.com does with them, providing audiobooks for the iTunes media store.

There has been the Golden Age, the Silver Age, theres various names for periods in recent comics history. The starting and ending dates of all of them are subject to some debate.

But if this comes to pass, there will be no question about the dawn of the Silicon Age of comics, when Apple releases a device that will become the iTunes/iPod of comics.

This article is must reading for comics fans. Read it now.

As an aside, the goal here for Apple is much like what they have done with other technologies. They arrive late to the party, but they take whats been done before and blow it completely out of the water.

This would be the “Kindle Killer”. Apple will trump all other book reading devices by having superior resolution and color. Comics will be merely the way Apple proves that their device would be superior. Existing devices are greyscale and low resolution, and aren’t suited to comics, which demand greater resolution and color depth.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple isn’t also lining up publishers of magazines that use lots of photography and graphics.

I dismissed most Apple tablet rumors in the past as Apple fanboys spinning fantastic tales. Most such rumors are. But Andy’s better than the rumor mongers, and clearly divides facts from speculation, but uses facts to support his suppositions. I trust him as a journalist.

So now I’m caught up in this Tablet speculation too. I used to think that any such

FuturePundit: “Doing Tasks Depletes Willpower: Most of us only have a finite supply of willpower.”

via Instapundit

The Planet has a photo essay about a true life Amazons in eastern Europe. It sounds like a group where Wonder Woman would feel right at home.

From Jenna Martin’s introduction:

In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students…

… Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women.

The Asgarda also have a website, where one page in English describes their history and teachings.

via Jenna Wakeman at The Frisky and Instapundit.

It are make imperfect nonsense.

At Bookworm Room:

the American version of Bizarro World, our friends (England, Israel, etc.) are our enemies. Our active enemies and those countries that are merely passively hostile to us (North Korea, Iran, Castro, Venezuela, etc.) are the ones to whom we pay homage. Our cooling planet is a warming planet. The UN, one of the most corrupt organizations in the world, is the world’s only hope for peace. The way to cure the nation’s vast deficit is to incur more debt. Disarmament protects us. The only democratic nation in the Middle East is a Nazi country. Putting women in hijabs frees them.

via Instapundit

After the Pats beat the Buffalo Bills on Monday night, I really shouldn’t kick one of their players while they’re down. But it’s just too tempting

Ellis, if you’re reading this, there’s plenty of places where you can get help for this habit.

via FailBlog.org

“As Maine goes, so goes the nation”?

In this case, I hope not.

David Freddoso examines how Maine’s public option plan, DirigoChoice, failed to reduce the number of uninsured, failed to reduce the cost of health care, but succeeded in driving up insurance rates for everyone.

Over the next five years, Dirigo would collect premiums and dole out subsidies, for net revenues of $109 million. Taxpayers and insurers kicked in in $155 million more. As of May 2009, Maine had spent about $317 million on Dirigo, including the start-up money.

The result: About 3,400 previously uninsured Mainers are insured today with Dirigo. That’s $93,000 for each newly insured person. The percentage of uninsured Mainers remains right where it was when Dirigo started: 10 percent. A large majority of those who switched to Dirigo – 64 percent – dropped their private insurance and switched to the subsidized “public option.”

Dirigo’s enrollment numbers had never approached expectations, but they have plummeted recently because the program is no longer a good deal. The expected cost-reductions never materialized, so premiums had to be ratcheted up by 74 percent in five years.

Read the whole thing, it shows the flaws in much of what is being proposed at the national level.

via Megan McArdle

Kevin Drum:

When the fire chief of Jericho, Arkansas, finally got fed up and went to court a few days ago to challenge his second traffic ticket in as many days, the town’s entire 7-man police force showed up for the hearing. And then shot him.

Seriously.

Discovered via Megan McArdle, who simply comments,

Whoa!

John Gruber at Daring Fireball:

I fully acknowledge that there is much to be gained by running your own copy of WordPress. But clearly there is a price: constant vigilance.

I like the little allusion to the famous quote from 19th century abolitionist, Wendell Phillips

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”

In this case liberty is running your own blog server.

Fortunately I’m in the same situation as Gruber, running a Movable Type system, so I’ve avoided the current unpleasantness that Andy Ihnatko is going through.

Andy doesn’t have quite as grand a historical reference as Gruber, but he does clearly communicate the situation he’s in.

*@&$, #%@&, &%%, Damn!

From Self Made Scholar: Project: Start a Commonplace Book

What is a Commonplace Book?

A commonplace book is essentially a scrapbook / compilation of information that the creator deems relevant. Commonplace books became popular with thinkers in 15th century England and were eventually promoted as a scholarly tool by major universities such as Yale and Harvard.

Creating a commonplace book can help you keep track of your educational journey. It’s a place to record favorite quotes from the books you read, ideas you have, and questions that arise from your studies.

In my attempts at blogging, I’ve been bookmarking tons of stuff that gets lost around the various methods of doing so. I rarely get down to blogging or even posting links.

I have the cop out of the list of “things I want to blog about” in the sidebar, but that’s only for items I’ve marked using del.icio.us. Not ideal and still a cop out.

Inspired by the blog post linked above, I’ve created a text file version of the commonplace notebook (though I am using a journal as a paper version for when I don’t have access to my computer.)

In this book there are links and excerpts form stuff that strikes my fancy, wether or not I blog about it, as it allows me to review my thoughts. I’m using the commonplace book as more than just a scrapbook. It’s also a place I put down random notes and crude writing. Sort of a first draft for nothing in particular, or to use comic book issue numbering as a metaphor, one could call it the 0th draft.

The key is to actually review things once in a while and convert notes into projects for writing, research, or just to jog my memory about what I’ve done in the past.

So far it’s been a good repository for random ideas, but I’ve yet to keep up with using it consistently, and even less so in reviewing it.