How much of an impact is Twitter having in Iran?

This is a story about how I was caught gullible - twice.

Like everyone else who depends upon mass media for a fair amount of my news, I was a bit surprised that Twitter was arguably playing a significant role in the protests in Tehran over the recent presidential election. I mean, this is Twitter, whose model for communication opens itself up to breathtakingly easy parody, as Conan Seize-the-low-hanging-fruit O'Brien illustrates. (I love you Conebone.) Case closed... right?

Calculated Risk analyzes the Rockefeller Foundation report on nosediving state income tax revenues

First and foremost, if you're not familiar with Calculated Risk, it is perhaps one of the most influential and highly regarded financial/economic blogs on the Web. Definitely recommend checking it regularly.

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government issued a report on state income tax revenue available at their website (pdf). In case you want a preview, look no further than their title: "April is the Cruelest Month". (Confused? Click here. And start reading him before I have to stop being friends with you.)

Pablo Neruda, and the Election Protests in Iran

I'm not saying that Neruda is a voice that makes sense to use for the Mousavi supporters. The poem, like the situation unfolding in Tehran, is complex, and it would be dangerous to underestimate the complexity of either. So here is, what I hope, is a complex enough concatenation of these two forces that tells a story. Whose, I do not know, and all of us wait for the next chapters to be written.

The text is from "Tu Risa" ("Your Laughter") by Pablo Neruda. The photos and captions are of the election protests in Tehran, located at the Boston Globe website.

Your Laughter

Frank Rich on anger at Obama, and my comments in the context of this recession

NYTimes Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich: The Obama Haters' Silent Enablers

It's a great read - I usually find Frank Rich's columns worth a read, and often find myself in agreement.

The article says better than I ever could about the dangers of fomenting domestic terrorism, intentionally or not, by using the bully pulpit in such a way. Sometimes I think these pundits are cynically boosting their ratings. Sometimes I think they drink their own kool-aid.

All politics is local

International legitimacy matters less (or more) than you think, depending on your professional, personal, and sociohistoricultural background-induced biases.

It matters less than you think, if you think as most intellectuals do, viewing the system-wide interactions of the pilotless, rudderless international system.

Those who use Occam's razor to argue that there is no God would find a similar line of argument that concludes that belief in an "invisible hand" is likewise irrational.

Most of us don't give a flying flip about the international legitimacy. Those who care about it tremendously tend to be in self-imposed intellectual and cultural - if not physical - exile from their countrymen, depending upon some intangible and poorly quantifiable form of recognition and validation from abroad to confirm their superiority (real or imagined). It may also fend off whatever residual nationalism/tribalism that resides in the subconscious, that which whispers in the spaces of the night words like 'fifth column', 'Judas', 'Benedict Arnold', 'traitor to the race', etc.

The virtues of church

I recently wrote three long-ish letters (not e-mails) to three old men at my church in Southern California. All of them are suffering from health problems of varying degrees. If you are so inclined, I'm sure that Jack, Kenji, and Jim would appreciate your prayers. This post is a product of the fond memories and thinking those notes catalyzed.

Sometimes I wish I could say that I'm a Christian because I felt that the Bible was the revealed word of God, or because, after a careful study of all religions and philosophies of life, that I found that this religion most closely aligned to my understanding of morality and justice. In all honesty, I was a Christian because I was born into a family that attended a Christian church - specifically, a United Church of Christ congregation.