State of Man

via Failblog.

New post at True/Slant:

I've begun blogging over at True/Slant because it's an interesting idea (a kind of steroidal version of both blogs and Web forums) and because it promises compensation. Yesterday's post was about the odd tendency to blame opinionated talking heads for society's ills:

Seems like Richard Florida should say something about this, right? Maybe he did and I just missed it.

"Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant."

--By Joshua Wolf Shenk for The Atlantic

What I said to Malkovich wasn't all that terrible, but in context of where and when I was asking it... well, it didn't go over smashingly. At the time -- which was like early 2003 -- Malkovich was heavily promoting a Chelsea NYC store and new line of clothing called Mrs. Mudd (which he had designed in its entirety, from what I recall). His idea, I gathered, was to create very fashionable, very trendy formal wear that looked more like uniforms than... however you want to describe what formal wear normally looks like. Bloggers and gossip artists at the time were not being kind -- saying, at their nicest, that Mrs. Mudd's Winter 2003 line looked like a very dark and extended appropriation of a suit perhaps worn by Sgt. Pepper. I noticed, though, that there were other

Can't exactly say I fall in line with the budding conservative revolution against -- of all things -- denim, but I guess it's relevant with regard to SOM. To wit:

This story ran Tuesday, outlining the current state of Richard Poplawski's incarceration:

Call me cynical, but this prayer service announcement, from Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, seems insulting:

"It gives me a chance, as shepherd of the church during Holy Week, to say that if, in any way, any representative of the church has hurt you, I ask for your forgiveness."

...

"It's not a forum where people will say aloud why they have come, but many of the reasons that people give for anger at the church will be addressed in the prayers and in his homily."

"The [GOP's] first African-American chairman told The Washington Times of his plan to lay out an 'off the hook' public relations blitz targeting young Latinos and African-Americans in 'hip-hop settings.' He appeared on radio to denounce President Obama's budget as containing a lot of 'bling bling' and used a podcast to pronounce himself ready to hold a 'rap off' with late night comedian Stephen Colbert."

"But for all the bullying bluster of conservative talk-show hosts, their essential attitude is one of apology and submission -- the dreary old conservative cringe. Their underlying metaphysic is the same as the liberals’: infinite human potential -- Yes, we can! -- if only we get society right. To the Left, getting society right involves shoveling us around like truckloads of concrete; to the Right, it means banging on about responsibility, God, and tax cuts while deficits balloon, Congress extrudes yet another social-engineering fiasco, and our armies guard the Fulda Gap. That human beings have limitations and that wise social policy ought to accept the fact -- some problems insoluble, some Children

This is interesting.

Extraordinarily risky, but interesting. Here's the petition. Main idea is this:

The Royal We were on the South Side of Pittsburgh last night for, in the words of an associate, "the city's classier riots" post-Super Bowl. Good fun. Interesting to watch a mob dismantle the transportation system in reaction to a football game. Highlights included the group of people who halted and then climbed on top of the 51C bus as the driver watched in horror. The extra fun came with the subsequent realization that the happy fans surrounding the bus were trying to tip it over. They failed, but still -- why? I guess the answer is: Why not?

From Claire Bateman's "Otherwhere":