BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

October 03, 2003

Snip, snipe, snark
: Jason Calacanis, who's starting a blog business, starts his personal weblog and continues to try to stir the s' up with Nick Denton: two men fighting over Elizabeth Spiers. My bet's on Nick in this bout. serial number nba2003

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Let the blogging begin
: BloggerCon begins. The night-before the day before the day after starts with a party. Adam Curry generously bought everybody a drink at the Hong Kong, a Harvard hangout no doubt started by a Yale graduate who wanted to kill all these Harvard people via arteriosclerosis. I love fried food but, damn, I've never seen things fried like this.serial number nba2003

: Suddenly, standing around one table, you have Glenn Reynolds, Dave Winer, Doc Searls, Josh Marshall, Dan Gillmor, Ed Cone (I'm too lazy to link; go here), some of them meeting face-to-face for the first time. The phenomenon is always the same: You know these people before you know them. Winer said that about Reynolds as we walked through Cambridge; it was exactly the impression I had the first time I met him: He's exactly what you'd expect. We all are. Know my blog, know me.
Just one exception to this rule: Josh Marshall never looks like his photo. serial number nba2003

: I do like Boston and Cambridge. I worked here for one weird month when I headed up content for Delphi soon after Murdoch bought it (I was still at his TV Guide then). Delphi was the real leader in the internet, the first dial-up ISP to offer Internet access. But that was before the browser. The Internet was text. Now it's media. And Delphi, sadly, blew it, working on its AOL killer instead of its web browser until it was too late. I had the good sense to get out only a month after I'd arrived and I'm still relieved that I did. But I've always regretted not making this town home. It's a neat place.serial number nba2003

: Winer is running BloggerBootCamp, starting too early in the morning. And I want to start earlier for a quick, cold run. So I'll leave now. Until tomorrow....serial number nba2003

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Shhhh
: On the way up to Cambridge, I accidentally found myself on the Acela quiet car: no cell phones; quiet headphones; quiet conversations; I'm surprised they don't restrict keyboard klacking. I understand the need but the problem is that this only leads to a new form of schoolmarmish scolding. Some poor guy in the next row didn't know he'd arrived in the quiet car; his cell phone rang; he answered it; the lady in the seat in front turned around the shhsssed and scolded and scowled. He apologized and hung up. She, of course, needed absolute quiet to concentrate on the copy of People she took three hours to read. serial number nba2003

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Boston bound
: Headed to Boston. Blogging later.... If only Amtrak were wired.....serial number nba2003

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Politics, morality, and hypocrisy
: Hypocrisy is the word of the week. Lots of it going around and lots of accusations using the word as a sword: See the Kelly vs. the CIA scandals and some hypocritical treatment; see the Arnold vs. Bill scandals and some hypocritical comomentary on both; see the Limbaugh scandal (the drug one, that is) and the hypocritical mess he got himself into. Now see all the hair-splitting going on trying to attack Clinton but not Schwarzenegger or vice versa; Blair but not Bush or vice versa; Limbaugh or not Limbaugh.
I judge this on a few pretty straightforward standards.
First, I do not expect politicians to be moral beacons; I expect just the opposite. I want them to run the government well; that's their job. I don't care about their sex lives; none of us should; it's irrelevant to the jobs they are doing and it's naive if not insane to think that they will be anything other than human. I'll take it one dangerous step more: Looking to government for moral guidance is damned near a violation of the separation of church and state; I don't want government legislating, dictating, or lecturing on morality; I want them to protect the country and the economy and give us the services we pay for. Period. Go f' all you want; just don't f' up the country, that's all I ask.
Second, I do abhor hypocrisy. The reason I so gleefully go after Limbaugh (or Bennett before him or various televangelists before them) is precisely because they do set themselves up as moral beacons and when they fall, they deserve every nya-nya they hear. Limbaugh went after Clinton; now he's fully fair game. Hypocrisy is his sin.serial number nba2003

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Off the road
: Well, darn, the new Limoliner has technical difficulties and so I won't be taking it to Boston today and won't be able to blog from the road ("gee... I'm seeing lotsa Pennsy plates today..."); I know you're crushed.
They were quite upstanding about it; warned me far before any airline would have and, of course, refunded the fare and also offered to pay for my Acella ticket and offered me a free voucher for another trip, which I'll take.
Now here's the fun part: The Limoliner lady said in an exchange with me, "Please don't blast us in your web blog--and we hope you'll give us another try." Of course, I had no means to tell them that I blogged their bus; they're a new business and they're smart enough to see what people are saying about them online. They're recognizing the power of their consumers and I like that.
And, no, I wouldn't blast them -- unless I'd ended up stranded on I-95.
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