Oh, For Pity's Sake

I'm on many e-mail distribution lists. I'm an information junkie.

One of the lists I'm on is the e-mail list of the "Positive Growth Alliance," a pro-developer PAC-type group formed by property-rights activists (developers) to counter the many growth-control groups that have arisen in recent years in response to what many see as out of control development in Coastal Sussex County, Delaware.

The Positive Growth Alliance people are nothing if not self-promoters. Their election day e-missive today centers around this:

For up-to-the-minute ELECTION RESULTS, please visit the POSITIVE GROWTH ALLIANCE WEBSITE and click on the link that says ELECTION RESULTS on the center of the home page.

The excessive CAPITALIZATION is theirs. not mine.

I was curious to see how this crowd might present the election results, so I dutifully clicked through to their home page and clicked on the big, red, "ELECTION RESULTS" link that I found there.

It took me directly to the Delaware Commissioner of Elections web site and its Election Results page.

Why not just send a friendly e-mail reminding people where to find the official election results? If you must direct people to your own web page, shouldn't you offer some original content? Some analysis? Some thought?

Or did they just want to count clicks?

Filed in:

• Delaware
• election
• politics

It's Time

If you are reading this and you are a citizen of the United States of America, let me just say:

GO VOTE.

That is all. Thank you.

Filed in:

• election
• Delaware
• politics

How Hard Was It to Find This Guy?

Curtis Allgier, considered Public Enemy #1 in Salt Lake City, Utah, was captured today. Someone spotted his girlfriend and that led the authorities to Allgier.

I assume he was keeping out of sight; he had some, um, distinguishing features.

Filed in:

• crime
• law-enforcement

Protest Song Number (Fn:Count[PROTESTSONGPOSTS])

I heard David Dye interview the singer Will Kimbrough on The World Cafe a few days ago. It's well worth a listen, especially for his song Pride, which neatly sums up much of what I've been feeling of late.

The tune is from Kimbrough's new album, Americanitis. He says, of the song:

A good friend tried to warn me about being too preachy on the CD. I responded by putting a full blown sermon, complete with slide guitar solo, on there.

He calls it a sermon; but if the thoughts are preachy, the musical style is not. The song unfolds in a laconic American folk-song version of sprechstimme, with Kimbrough quietly skewering us for some of our sins:

There's no power in pride.
Pride is a man who goes to war to save face.

And pride is a man who cannot tell the truth
if it might make him look weak.
There's no power in pride.

Our sin is pride and we know it.
We just can't bear to talk about it.

We paste those [pride] stickers right next to the fish
we bought down at the Christian Store.
I'm not bashing Jesus,
But how 'bout we read what Jesus said for once.

I say for balance we take in a little Buddha,
And Johnny Cash.

He has a point.

Pardon Me While I Boggle. Briefly.

Here's a headline that puts my brain on "pause:"

BREAKING NEWS: Air Force to create Cyber Command

According to the full story, on Federal Computer Week's FCW.com, the Air Force is planning "to bring full-scale military operations to cyberspace."

Service officials have said they view cyberspace as a strategic and tactical warfighting domain, similar to air, sea, land or space.

Oh. Goody.

Filed in:

• web
• internet
• military

Are You as Sick of the Election as I Am?

Don't get me wrong. It's hugely important that we all go out next Tuesday and vote. Who-ever you vote for, you must vote. We don't deserve our Democracy if we don't. (Or maybe we do?)

But I am sick of the partisans, and the TV ads, and the attacks. I'm ready to vote. Can it be election day yet?

On the other hand, it was cool to run into Levy Court At-Large Candidate W.G. Edmanson at Spence's Bazaar today.

I was walking my lunch. Mr. Edmanson had rented a space in the weekly flea market that forms at Spence's each Tuesday. He was there to meet possible voters and hand-out literature and lawn-signs.

I told him that I don't vote in Kent County, but that I wished him luck. I asked him how the Spence's booth was working. He said he's "not one of those in-your-face politicians" (I think I remembered that right) and that he was just there to give things away.

He seemed like a nice fellow.

Filed in:

• election
• Delaware
• politics
• Dover
• KentCounty

Here's a Useful Resource for Some Delaware Bloggers

Given how closely some Delaware blogs are following and blogging the current election, I think the Center for Citizen Media's Election Day Bloggers' Legal Guide could be a help.

The idea is that bloggers can submit legal questions about blogging the election. They will be answered by Student Fellows at Stanford Law. The first example question caught my eye:

Can you be in the voting area except to vote? (Not in Delaware)

Word to the wise. (via theBivingsreport)

Filed in:

• Delaware
• election
• blogging
• politics

Please, No G's

In web-searching for the Punkin' Ale post I just wrote, I found that there are two wikipedia entries on Delaware's native sport: Punkin' Chunkin' and Pumpkin Chunking. Both contain a note that they should probably be merged.

Merged? Certainly. But leave out the G's.

In Punkin Chunkin, G's are superfluous (not that a true Chunker would ever use the word superfluous).

Filed in:

• Delaware
• punkin'chunkin'

Dogfish Head Beer Praised, but Spelling is Questioned

Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale won a positive review from the blog Dethroner (a field guide for the modern man) today.

In Pumpkin Beer That Doesn’t Suck: Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Joel Johnson praises Dogfish Head's fall offering as "a fully round ale with just the right balance of pumpkin, spice, and malt flavors—and just a touch of brown sugar." He suggests checking it out when one is in the New England.

New England? Hrmph! That's Delaware's beer.

At least one commenter thought that the spelling "punkin" was a pun (or its kin?), maybe based on the notion that the Dogfish version of pumpkin beer was so much better than others that it could be said (in the vernacular, of course) to be "Punking" the other beers.

I set them straight, pointing out the the beer is a part of our Punkin' Chunkin' heritage.

Filed in:

• Delaware
• beer
• punkin'chunkin'

Who Says the World Isn't Watching Delaware Vote?

The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) has a story in its Diaspora section on the candidacy of Prameela Kaza, an Indian-American running against Nancy Wagner for the 31st Representative District seat in the General Assembly.

The IANS site requires login, but I found the story -- Indian American in running for Delaware house seat -- repeated on the Telugu Portal site.

Ms Kaza is a Democrat. She is no political newcomer; she is active in Kent County politics and civic life and ran against Representative Wagner four years ago.

The Telugu people are an ethnic group in India, and Telugu is an official language of that country. According to wikipedia.

So. 31st District voters: you vote for whomever you like. Just remember, though, the world is watching.

Filed in:

• Delaware
• election
• India