The Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium is hosting a public forum on American Pragmatism and American Politics this Saturday at the Free Library on Logan Circle. The event is at 1:00 PM in the Montgomery Auditorium. I’m actually pretty excited about it, because three of the people other than John Dewey who are most responsible for my interest in pragmatism are going to be there: Robert Westbrook (who wrote John Dewey and American Democracy), Bruce Kuklick (who assigned me the aforementioned book in an intellectual history seminar in 1999) and James Kloppenberg (whose Uncertain Victory was one of the first comprehensive overviews of pragmatism and American social politics I read in my research). So if you’re in the area, come on down and philosophize.
Rolling the Dice on Charter Change
Posted March 21, 2007 By Dave ThomerIn addition to the mayoral primary, it looks like Philadelphia voters will have a chance to vote on an amendment to the city’s home Rule Charter that would make it illegal to put casinos near schools, churches and residential neighborhoods. Various authorities have said that, given other existing restrictions, that would make it pretty much impossible to put a slots parlor anywhere in the city, and would definitely rule out the two sites that have already been selected by the state gaming board. The city’s legal advisor has said that even though he’s pretty sure the proposed charter amendment would ultimately be ruled illegal by state courts, he can’t prevent the vote. It’s kind of an interesting element of the judicial review process – the courts can’t stop the legislature from passing a bad law, they can only prevent a law that’s been passed from taking effect.
I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on the proposed amendment. I’m not against legalized gambling in principle. It’s an activity that has its dangers, but so do drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and playing the lottery, and all of those things are legal. And if people are going to gamble, I’d prefer that the city and state get some of the revenue benefit from it. (I will also admit, in a totally tangential way, that the introduction of slots gambling to the race track right outside Philadelphia has caused an increase in the number of bus routes running through my neighborhood, so I’m happy about that.) But there is a larger issue at stake, in that once again the state government is coming in and taking control of important civic decisions away from Philadelphia, its citizens, and its government. And I’m thinking that it might be worth voting for this charter amendment just as a way of registering my complaint on that score and not making it easy for the state to keep barging in.
Shoulda Thoughta That Before
Posted March 20, 2007 By Dave ThomerThere was a court hearing today on the challenge to Bob Brady’s spot on the mayoral ballot. The Inquirer’s mayoral election blog was there with live updates, and I was struck with this particular passage:
There’s a lot of testiness in the air, as Brady time and again makes reference to the fact that by sitting on the witness stand he is not doing the job he was elected to do in Congress.
You know, granted, I’m taking the reporters’ word for it that this describes Brady’s attitude. But, y’know, he’s the guy that decided he wanted to run for a term as mayor that starts in 2008 when his term as a congressman doesn’t end until 2009. If Brady had not a) decided to run for a different office and then b) screwed up his paperwork, he could have been down in Washington having a fine old congressional time. So the concern about doing his job seems a little too late.
I have a hunch that by the time this is over, even if Brady’s still on the ballot, I’ll prefer the idea of voting for a dead fish.
Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition
Posted March 19, 2007 By Dave ThomerI reviewed this giant hardcover helping of George Perez art over at theLogBook, so go ahead and check it out.
Anything to Declare?
Posted March 18, 2007 By Dave ThomerGot an e-mail from MoveOn.org today. (I signed up around the time of the Vote for Change tour, and haven’t really participated in a lot of the organization’s activities since then, even though the possibilities for Internet-harnessed democratic decision-making intrigue me.) They’re trying to figure out whether or not to support the House leadership’s version of the supplemental funding bill on Iraq. The bill sets a timetable for withdrawal, but doesn’t have any kind of automatic funding shut-off or anything as an “enforcement” mechanism. So some on the anti-war side say it doesn’t go far enough, and want to defeat the bill in hopes of getting a stronger version. My sense is that it’s worth supporting something that even gets the notion of a timetable on the record, and that if this goes down the next version will be weaker, not stronger.
But as I’ve been thinking about this, going over options in my head and playing Armchair Congressman, it just seems that there is not an effective way for a Congress to put a stop to a full-scale military operation. People can point to precedents and clauses and delineated powers that justify a complex situation like Jack Murtha’s readiness standards, but in terms of the way our expectations and customs have involved, the closest thing Congress has is the defunding hammer. And I think that if Congress refused to fund, or even said that in X number of months they were going to defund, the president would be able to muster enough political backlash to make that a tremendously difficult thing to make stick. So I admit, I kind of gave up a little bit about Iraq – the voters had a chance to change direction in 2004, they chose not to, and 2006 notwithstanding, the next real chance voters are going to have to change direction is in 2008.
So I started to think ahead a little bit. We need to change something about our political culture if we don’t want to find ourselves in this boat again. And a big change in political culture is a long-term, aim-high, pie-in-the-sky kind of thing. So what I think would be worth advocating would be a constitutional convention or amendment to rewrite some of the war powers. I mean, we’re still pointing to the fact that only Congress has the power to “declare war,” but I believe that the United States has engaged in at least five conflicts that are popularly referred to as wars without an official declaration from Congress since the last time it declared war. (I’m counting Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and both conflicts in Iraq.) Military operations just don’t work the way they did in the 1700s, and we need a legal structure that recognizes this. There ought to be a way to amend the Constitution so that any extended military combat action that is not immediately necessary for self-defense has to have explicit Congressional approval. Furthermore, it should be explicitly stated that the Congress has the power to rescind this approval and order the president to begin an orderly withdrawal of troops. If these things were clear, debates like the one we’re having now wouldn’t be clouded by discussion of whether or not this is an unjustified intrusion by Congress into the presidential role as Commander-in-Chief or whether or not Congress has the authority to rescind an authorization to use military force. The debate would solely be about whether Congress should use an explicitly-granted power in this particular circumstance. I have a hunch that if the Iraq debate were being held on those terms, it would be a very different one.
What Wil Said
Posted March 17, 2007 By Dave ThomerI’ve been reading Wil Wheaton’s blog for a while now, and while I enjoy the funny stories, the geek commentaries, and the occasional poker anecdotes, I think the one thing that makes sure I keep him in my bookmarks is that he’s willing to get introspective and try and work through his thought process in some of his blog posts. I can definitely relate to that; sometimes I think I’m too prone to navel-gazing. (And ironically, R.E.M.’s “Bittersweet Me” is playing just as I type this, a song in which navel-gazing plays a lyrical role.) But I think it’s worth doing for the self-discovery, and I think it’s worth sharing because heck, someone else might be able to relate to it. (And in keeping with the parenthetical theme here, that’s one of the things that Michael Stipe says he realized after a few years of lyric-writing, which made him willing to be more direct in his writing – at times.) I can definitely say that’s true for Wil’s writing – there are posts I’ve read where he really does nail a thought process I’ve gone through many times myself. An example would be this post, which starts off with Wil talking about a reader who described meeting Wil years ago, and that being a positive experience. Wil takes that incident and uses it as a springboard to talk about occasions where he’s less pleased with how he acted, and how he still beats himself up over those things. And that’s the bit where I said “Been there, done that, way too often.” There are incidents where I did not handle myself well, or disappointed people around me, or just flat out did something dumb when I should have known better, and every once in a while my brain likes to call up those incidents and relive them. And I get angry with myself all over again – for not knowing better, for not thinking things through, for doing something that wasn’t the right thing to do because I was trying to be someone that I’m not. And as Wil suggests, I just gotta hope that what I learned from those experiences helps make up for whatever screwup I made at the time. The advantage that Wil has over me is that on his blog, you can get all this lovely introspection and self-analysis along with a large helping of William Shatner stories.
Now They Tell Me
Posted March 16, 2007 By Dave ThomerWednesday, it was around 80 degrees. Today, it was in the 30s with sleet, snow, and slush.
Today, it was also announced that we’re having the warmest winter on record. I know who’s getting the Poor Timing award this month.
Also also today, St. Joe’s was open during the day, so I had to slide up City Avenue t oget to class. But the barbecue restaurant I like was closed this evening, so I did not get to drown my sorrows in a platter of pulled pork tonight.
(Can one drown in a platter? If one can, I had every intention of doing so tonight.)
Ah well. Bring on the weekend. Stay warm.
A Stopped Queue
Posted March 15, 2007 By Dave ThomerAs part of my effort to get through my media backlog, I finally did something I should have done a long time ago. I watched the Netflix disc that’s been sitting on the TV for about a month (more on that this weekend) and told Netflix to stop sending discs from my profile. We still get the service for Pattie, because she actually remembers to watch the things within a few days. I am not going to reactivate my service until I have watched every DVD I have in this house. And that includes the Superman IV: The Quest for Peace disc that came in the ultimate Superman set. So if you have stock in Netflix, don’t be expecting any revenue from me any time soon.
Metro Deeper on the Web
Posted March 14, 2007 By Dave ThomerNow this is weird. The Metro is a small newspaper distributed for free on SEPTA buses and trains and at a few other points around the city. It mostly runs bite-sized versions of wire service articles with some original commentaries/features. But they have a blog set up at Fight for Room 215 covering the Philadelphia mayoral election, and wouldn’t you know it, the blog featured on the spot reporting of all the challenges that were filed against various candidates trying to knock them off the ballot. (Seriously, folks, if you’re not reading Young Philly Politics on this, you’re missing an entertaining story and a head-slapper of a political situation.) Now, I guess it doesn’t matter to Metro whether its deep reporting goes on the web or in print – they’re giving it away either way, right? But still, it baffles me sometimes.
(In fairness, the Inquirer has done similar live blogs of important political events, such as the recent speaker election in the state House. Man, local politics are entertaining around here . . .)
Hitting the Wall, Blogger-Style
Posted March 13, 2007 By Dave ThomerI’ve been trying to do the daily blogging thing for a few reasons – I don’t want to let the site go fallow for a long period, and I have an annoying habit of letting one skip day turn into a lot of skipped days. And I like the mental exercise and routine. But tonight, I was sitting somewhat bleary-eyed at the PC, scanning through headlines and other blogs looking for something to write about. The heck of it is, it wasn’t pure writer’s block. There are a bunch of things I have in mind to write. I just don’t feel I have the energy to put them into words properly, so all these great posts in my head fizzle when I start trying to put them down. I’m still trying to shake off the last of the cold and the odd sleep situations the cold helped to create, which I think explains why I’m not as sharp as I’d like to be. But it’s kind of funny to be saying that I’m physically not in shape to do my best writing right now. Usually, writing is seen as a mental activity, not something that gives the body any use – definitely on the cerebral side of the brain vs. brawn divide. But if you take seriously the idea that our brains are a part of our body, and thinking is an activity of the body just like anything else, well, then, all of a sudden that divide starts to fade away.
Maybe I should carbo load before my next posting run.