Campaign finance and free speech

The recently voided portions of the McCain-Feingold law limited political speech. Without denying that, I believe there are several countering points to be considered. This point has been on my mind recently. I think I will vent it here.

Speech is "free" but space and time for it is not unlimited. The argument that free speech should only be countered by other free speech and not by legal limits ignores that airtime and effective publishing is a limited resource. Should well funded corporations be allowed to purchase all prime time advertising time to the exclusion of candidates? How would that affect a candidate's right to speech? We set time limits on debate answers. A similar reasonable restriction is required on a broader level.

We do not balance "free speech" by enforcing libel restrictions. We allowed parties, candidates and corporations to speak without fact checking. Whether it is "swift boaters" mis-truths, or Martha Coakley's mailings on Scott Brown's stance on rape and contraceptives (which he filed lawsuits opposing), we've put looser limits on the truth of content preferring instead limits on access to media. Surely this balance was not perfect and is now even further skewed towards those that would fictionalize, exaggerate and spin.

We limit speech already in situations where unfettered speech endangers individuals. From the cliched "fire in a theater," to inciting riots, to threatening violence, organizing criminal conspiracies, publishing certain forms of pornography - the list of restricted speech is quite long. The noise of corporate political advertising is a direct harm to candidates attempting to communicate to voters their intention if elected. A candidate has the challenging of task of establishing a set of commitments with the electorate. Muddling, confusing and misrepresenting a candidate's stances is harmful to our democracy, which requires an honest and audit-able commitment between voter and candidate - the foundation of which is clear communication.

Free speech, in the context of an election, is further restricted by the deadline of the election day. The law allowed ample time for corporations or assemblies of like minded individuals to state their opinion and then allowed candidates and parties a grace period ahead of the election deadline to counter that argument. Producing effective speech takes time. Allowing moneyed interests to prepare and queue unlimited advertising to be released immediately before an election is unfair to candidates. We restrict the distance between political advertisers and polling places in the physical world. It is not unreasonable to establish a similar restriction in our publishing world.

The ruling, to the best of my knowledge, does not distinguish non-profit assemblies from profit seeking corporations. Yet these are very different institutions with different motivations. Perhaps an organization founded only to raise money to speak a political opinion should not be restricted equally to a corporation existing only to profit its shareholders. And if an organization raised only to issue political speech feels the need for liability protection in the form of incorporation, perhaps we should be considering a different point here entirely.

I agree with the ruling in the ideal. In the real world, though, I severely regret this decision and worry about its consequences on our already loud and fractured political conversation.

The Elements of Typographic Style

Robert Bringhurst's masterpiece! Searches for introductory typography texts will find suggestions for Elements. I'm not qualified to review these texts broadly or in comparison to one another but would like to share those points that I particularly enjoyed.

First, the format, the page composition and the typesetting is, of course, wonderful. The book can be read straight through paragraph by paragraph, front to end.. or can be opened randomly and scanned from corner to corner. The sidebars, insets, graphics, tables all stand on the page, balanced with one another, asking to be read.

Second, the writing is clear, succinct, unpretentious and informative. Bringhurst explains the physical and historical elements of type. Definitions are presented in text and also through plentiful examples and diagrams.

Finally, the book, it's full of letters! If you enjoy looking at the night sky to see stars or like looking at words to see letters - Elements is a portable marvel waiting for you.

Elements has the same charm of opinion as the title it riffs on, Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," and exudes a passion for its topic - an intimacy of the author's long inspection.

Skeletons

Collecting leaves the from the large trees in our (smaller) backyard had me thinking about the difference in purpose between tree's physical structure and our own.

Clutch, claw, grasp.
Femurs and spines, biceps, triceps,
and flexors, ribs sinewed together for motion.

Optimize for station:
sprawled tree
spread for space and sunlight,
Twists and forks in radials.

Measure the volume of leaves
collected.
Three more surface than our palm.
There lie 100,000 count.
1,000 pounds.

We will clutch and claw
and grasp them.
Collect them. Maybe glance up
at empty branches for stragglers.
Instead see a skeleton
for a different purpose.

Vim

So, let's say, hypothetically, you love text editors. You are, perhaps, growing tired of your old, faithful tool - so many flashy things out there - hands tired of so much chording - so many files of rotting elisp.

And let's say you have a day or two of vacation and spend some portion of that lazily browing the interwebs.

And finally, let's just say you stumble upon Mr. Derek Wyatt's collection of Vim tutorials. Mr. Wyatt is such a nutball of enthusiasm, he warms my text-editting heart. Here's to ya' Derek - hope you never :q!.

Dignity, perfection and the missing cheerleaders

Seems every year I watch more of the NFL. This year's games have me thinking about two things, neither of which is cheerleaders.

First: dignity. The celebrations, pushing matches, whining to the refs, the commercials (oh my, the commercials), the absurd pageantry: there is, really, very little dignity in professional football.

Second: perfection. Football can no longer be played reliably on a turf field: turf muddies and is uneven. Most teams, it seems, play on something artificial, probably laser leveled. Commentators speak endlessly about perfection of timing in the passing game. Football is described in absolutes. Chains measure progress on fixed markers (which you can be granted a free time out to have exactingly paced off in some circumstances.) And the replay review. Two feet, no bobble, specific rules around control, placement, knee down before the ball slips? So fine tuned, the human eye at real speed is insufficient. High speed photography is employed, instead.

And this seems to be the summary of modern politics as well. Dignity? Ha. Perhaps from a few of the best tier of politicians but certainly not from the machinery or noise surrounding them.

But perfection? Here's what I mean: each suggestion must be perfect or it is ridiculed. Each word carefully chosen or picked apart in the great cog of dissonance. Every slogan protected. Every sentence enunciated. Every estimate must declared fact or it is unworthy of consideration.

When we live and work with dignity, our bearing, our character, our words, our actions all inform the perception of our intentions. And we are allowed a grace, a continuum of trust, to continue and improve our works. Our character is at least an equal measure of our result.

I ponder that a culture that favored a little more dignity and a little less perfection might allow a more evolutionary and practical path to achievements in discourse and public policy.

Perhaps our games mirror our values in this regard.

Left Brain

Is Wolfram Alpha the "left brain" of the internet to Google's right? Seems the obvious analogy in some ways.

Joined a Gym

I've broken a life long trend and joined a gym. I've been feeling a bit lethargic lately and a bit stiff from all the sitting I do. Awhile ago I realized that my keyboard and my chair were the largest contributing factors to my full set of daily actions. That surely has to be a little out of balance.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole gym thing yet - however the culture of this particular establishment strongly favors health activity vs. "pumping iron" and is directly on my home-bound commute.

Look at that - a pre-new-year's resolution!

A Documentary History of the United States

A Documentary History stitches together historical documents, speeches and essays with brief (and largely liberal) comments from the author. Every few documents, a page or two is dedicated to setting the frame of the times, explaining why the following pieces were selected and providing the briefest historical context.

I'm sure this book is more fun to read if you lean left - the author's comments generally reflect a liberal point of view on the social history assembled. However, the reminder that the full and original texts of our history are readily available and immediately accessible to (English speaking) readers, is powerful.

I wish my High School American history teacher had thrown out the Houghton Mifflin and simply handed us copies of this book, instead. Both the method of learning and considering history and the details derived from the study would have been better served.