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In an amongst some random browsing prompted by the Independent Spirit
Awards, I browsed a little for one of my favorite film directors, John
Waters. I turned up a few links, the funniest of which is this one, an
article about John Waters
as Baltimore’s man of the year
. I also found Dreamland News, a fan site
and Atomic Books, Water’s link to
the world of retail
where you can buy autographed copies of his
books. I really enjoy his movies. I need to get
Pecker on DVD, since that is such a cheerful and
goodhearted film and I could really use that.

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dave

Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

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Again with PNH, this time a post comparing and contrasting war
rhetoric entitled How
to Talk like a Leader
.

Years ago, I was a mediocre beginning bass player. One night at the
Wreck Room as I was watching local band No Walls playing, I marvelled
at super-bassist Hank Schroy and thought “If I practice 8 hours a day
the rest of my life, I’ll never be that good.” I stopped playing the
bass the next day, got rid of it and have never played again. I get
that feeling from reading Electrolite
but now I’m older, wiser and less of a wussy. That I won’t be as good
is no reason to stop trying, for chrissake! It is a reason to step up
my own game.

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dave

Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

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While just looking at Teresa’s blog a minute ago gathering the link
for the previous post, I saw her link to an amazing blog. I had read
this one a while back and forgotten about it but she reminded
me of it. It is a blog from
an Iraqi kid
. Here is an excerpt from shortly before the “war” began:

No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of
regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the
beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight club that is,
and if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying “come on bomb us”
it is the exasperation and 10 years of sanctions and hardship
talking. There is no person inside Iraq (and this is a bold, blinking
and underlined inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the
bombs to drop. We are not suicidal you know, not all of us in any
case.

I think that the coming war is not justified (and it is very near now,
we hear the war drums loud and clear if you don’t then take those
earplugs off!). The excuses for it have been stretched to their limits
they will almost snap. A decision has been made sometime ago that
“regime change” in Baghdad is needed and excuses for the
forceful change have to be made. I do think war could have been
avoided, not by running back and forth the last two months, that’s
silly. But the whole issue of Iraq should have been dealt with
differently since the first day after GW I.

The entities that call themselves “the international community” should
have assumed their responsibilities a long time ago, should have
thought about what the sanctions they have imposed really meant,
should have looked at reports about weapons and human rights abuses a
long time before having them thrown in their faces as excuses for war
five minutes before midnight.

What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging
for days now: how could “support democracy in Iraq” become to mean
“bomb the hell out of Iraq”? why did it end up that democracy won’t
happen unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for
a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy?
Well, thank you! how thoughtful.

The situation in Iraq could have been solved in other ways than what
the world will be going thru the next couple of weeks. It can’t
have been that impossible. Look at the northern parts of Iraq, that is
a model that has worked quite well, why wasn’t anybody interested
in doing that in the south. Just like the US/UK UN created a protected
area there why couldn’t the model be tried in the south. It would
have cut off the regimes arms and legs. And once the people see what
they have been deprived off they will not be willing to go back, just
ask any Iraqi from the Kurdish areas. Instead the world watched while
after the war the Shias were crushed by Saddam’s army in a manner
that really didn’t happen before the Gulf War. Does anyone else see
the words (Iran/not in the US interest) floating or is it me
hallucinating?

This is wildly sensible stuff. Reading his (is it a him? I haven’t
read enough yet to get a feeling of the person behind the posts)
matter of fact description of the details of life in a city under
siege reminded of Joe Kubert’s incredible but harrowing Fax
From Sarajevo
. What really disturbs me about the pro-war
people who are cheering as they watch shit blow up is that there are
people very much like you and me, with similar or identical dreams,
goals, aspirations who are bearing the brunt of this. Kids not being
able to get food because no one wants to go out for fear of being
killed, that’s what you are cheering on, friends. It’s not a big
fucking video game, it is honest citizens who at best have their lives
disrupted and at worse ended, every time a bomber unloads.

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dave

Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

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A few people I know have started blogging lately. I think its not so
much a “fad” per se but just the example of seeing other people do
it. It just kind of makes sense to have this forum for stuff about
you, a place to vent when you need it and for your friends to check up
on you. My friend Darin just started one
yesterday, and his lead off entry is a good one about how the way the
reporters are assigned to military units makes them shills. The guys
who were my team at InterTrust in Portland have both recently started weblogs,
which I like because I can follow their crazy exploits from a
distance. One is from Jonny X (leader of Jonny X and the Groadies) and the
other is my boy Ed. I got
to see both of these guys when I went to
Orycon
last year, which was nice. Three new blogs, all from guys I
know and all of who mentioned me as some sort of “inspiration.” I
don’t know about that, but this does seem to be a sensible for
self-expression. The folks who inspired me include Doc Searls, Mitch Wagner, Patrick
Nielsen-Hayden
, Teresa Nielsen-Hayden
and others I can’t think of right now. Thanks to those who inspired
me, thanks to those who read this. Pay it back, pay it forward,
just pay it.

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

One thought on “No Title”

  1. I have also been wanting to start a blog for several years. I even signed up for an account on blogger 2 or 3 years ago, but never followed through with setting it up or using it. I just decided…

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Last night we went to a dinner party, so I couldn’t spend as long
working with this Linux box as I’d have liked. I found almost
everything in my lost+found directory, so all my little scripts and
stuff are back where they belong. Just in finding what I needed there
(mostly by grepping for words I knew were in them) and moving them
back to my directory it took hours. I shudder to think how long it
would have taken to duplicate everything. Must do backup, must do
backup. Just all the .rc files with my key bindings for mutt and
emacs, my screen and bash settings, this stuff alone would have taken
forever to get back the way I like it. This enormous sense of relief
flooded over me once I realize that most of this was recoverable.

Published by

dave

Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.