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Month: October 2007

Voting Philosophy

Published by Editor B on Friday, 19 October 2007

My voting philosophy is pretty simple. Here are my general rules:

  1. Vote against the incumbent, if there is one.
  2. Don’t vote for a candidate of either of the two major entrenched parties.

These are not rigid by any means. I’ll make an exception if I believe in a particular candidate or if some other calculus suggests itself.

Of course, following these rules often means voting for someone I don’t know too much about, or voting for someone who has values that are antithetical to my own. But I’m OK with that. These candidates usually don’t have a prayer of winning anyway.

For the record, I don’t consider voting for a no-chance candidate to be “throwing my vote away.” It’s a protest vote. This is not a frivolous choice. Given the current state of affairs, I think protest is the only rational approach. When the top contenders do not inspire, there’s no other way to express one’s displeasure. I wish we had a “None of the Above” option in many cases.

If I follow those rules tomorrow, I might vote like this:

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Hip-Hop for Hope

Published by Editor B on Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Noah K called me the other day to promote an upcoming event called Hip-Hop for Hope. Now I love me some hip-hop, but I don’t care for what much of mainstream commercial hip-hop has become. My tastes run to the old school and the underground. I like intelligent, socially conscious rap. That’s why it’s good to see a positive local event like this. Here’s the info from Noah, and be sure to check out his blog.

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48 Hours

Published by Editor B on Friday, 12 October 2007

48 Hours Mystery will be running a show this weekend about Helen Hill and Dinerral Shavers and the general topic of violence in New Orleans.

I spoke to the producers a couple of times. One producer told me he was disappointed by the seeming resignation of most of the people they’d interviewed. He was hoping I might bring the rage. I must not have sounded angry enough, though, because in the end they never interviewed me.

Here’s their press release:

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