Benjamin Melançon's blog

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On loss and life

It's one Jewish lunar year since my father died, and I got broken up with again (and we both better accept this, at least for a while, this time).

And I am all right.

Media sexism needs to be addressed

Let me say now before Hillary Clinton officially ends her presidential bid that while I follow Molly Ivins on this and opposed Senator Clinton's presidential ambitions from the start, there was definitely sexism in the campaign coverage that I and many people with a far greater reach than my voice should have spoken out against more loudly and more often.

Replacing the system

Finally, a Seth Godin post to which I have something to add.

"Spirit of the Game" contrasts trying to beat the system (maybe it'll work once, and then the rules will be changed) to working the system (chance of repeated success and everyone raising their game and benefitting).

The system he mentions working within include the Internet (really, World Wide Web in this context) and Ultimate Frisbee.

Clay Shirky: provide people the legal/practical benefits of incorporation without the rigidity/overhead (a PWGD goal)

Clay Shirky thoughtfully (and of course without knowing) defines one of the key goals/purposes of PWGD better than I have been able to explain it: provide people the legal and practical business benefits of incorporation without the rigidity or hierarchy (and ideally with lower startup and overhead costs).

http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=335

Greyhound complaints against the company moderated by praise of a driver

[Written in line, and on the bus]

Due to the kindness and grace of one driver, I have to take back, or put on hold, almost all the bad things I say about Greyhound here. [Below.] I prevailed on him -- after the three girls had begged at the rest stop and surely softened him up -- to stop in Framingham. Since the girls couldn't be sure their ride would find them at the Natick rest area (they couldn't get through by phone), we'll all be dropped off at the official Framingham stop!

Memo to Barack Obama: Subsidizing low-wage work is an inefficient anti-poverty program

Barack Obama, speaking to the BlogHer community, responded to a question about the economy and "helping families break the cycle of poverty."

Obama made his number one answer the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC:

It starts with just making sure that if people are working they get an adequate income.

They may define you as a disease next

On the one hand having transexual identity treated as disease can get operations covered, on the other it implies that some people need to be changed, fixed, to suit other people's definitions of sex. But one thing is certain, no one who cares wants control-mad reactionaries to be in charge of rewriting the medical definition of "Gender Identity Disorder"

In particular, I want to point out that there is a sordid history of using psychological evaluations and methods to discredit and detain people.

Have to do in San Francisco area

(Bold means done it!)

San Francisco Bay Area

1. Drive/bike/walk around San Francisco
2. Drive/walk across Golden Gate
3. Drive across Bay Bridge (in taxi)
4. Go swimming at Strawberry Canyon (Berkeley)
5. Walk around Berkeley (from Ashby to downtown Berkeley, and around Berkeley campus)
6. North Beach
7. Chinatown & Oakland Chinatown
8. Brunch at Thai Buddhist Temple
9. Napa wineries
10. Visit a Marin town (such as Mill Valley)

Next step after NewsTools2008

Do Drupal to make dreams come true (in response to person before me, "use Drupal to make my dreams come true").

Contact Josh Wolf about collaborating on the open news network concept (person-to-person squared).

Contact Josh Wilson, David Cohn, others about quality, modular, e-mail mailing list software.

Managing the infinite

Godin again:

There are essentially an infinite number of good causes to contribute to, an infinite number of people to help, an infinite number of great records to listen to as well. The problem is finding them. Connecting. Feeling like you were successful and not missing something you really needed or wanted.

Forgiving the figurative use of the word infinite, this is again the role PWGD can and must fill.

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