These pieces were not written by the late British poet, Ken Smith (1938-2003), nor the other Ken Smiths who make bass guitars, study marine biology, sell cars, teach card counting, paint war scenes in oils, guide bear hunters in Idaho, teach forest management, study immunology, do war reporting, sell real estate, photograph nature, teach cryptology, provide legal counsel to the gay and lesbian community, realign the spines of athletes, listen for seismic faults in the Sierra Nevadas, operate a 4-axis milling machine, work for sustainable development in Alberta, play blackjack, or criticize Junk English. Nor were the pieces written by the Ken Smith who is “the Elvis Costello of Landscape Architecture” nor the one who serves in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives nor the one who hit a home run for the Atlanta Braves in 1983. I only wish.
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Not having to know
We are all "Good Germans" now, writes Dave Winer. People who look the other way, who comply, who don't seem to know what's going on, who don't manage to resist, just as many Germans did in the 1930s and 1940s. Many Americans occupy a peculiar space of privilege, where something that looks from arm's length like…
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Why how we say it matters
If you say so-and-so was a slave, that means one thing. Saying that this person was enslaved means another. I was writing a paragraph about right-wing moves to mask parts of American history. In the first version of one sentence I took the already packaged meaning of a familiar word which I found immediately at…
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Making propaganda easy
When a journalist refers to Public Law 119-21 as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, that's repeating a political slogan uncritically, needlessly, and doing political advertising for free. Public Law 119-21 began life as H. R. 1 during the 119th Congress, and it was signed into law by the President on July 4, 2025, so no hint of…
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It must be about everything
And the next election? Dave Winer says, “It must be about everything.” Imagine the 2026 election being defined narrowly. Imagine that center-left politicians retake control of Congress. Maybe they pass laws that require serious screening and training for ICE officers. Maybe they limit the operations of ICE. Maybe they abolish it and replace border —…
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Silence hurts us
In a brief post about Ukraine, Marius Didziokas offers a widely applicable, relevant, reusable sentence — just fill in the blank with an important topic: “It’s crucial to remember that the lack of discussion about __________ only benefits dictators.” That’s the thing about the powerful. They like our silence, when they can get it. They…
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Attention must be paid, or not
In Death of a Salesman, as a working person’s life is falling to pieces, the one closest to him says, “Attention must be paid!” A 1999 review of the play’s revival interprets the line this way: “When people hurt as Willie does, it is inhuman to look away.” And for the duration of the live…
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Bullet list brains
Praise for a user document created by the Gemini large language tool reminds me that I haven’t run my private test on ChatGPT or its buddies lately. My test involves asking questions of some complexity about things that I am very knowledgeable about, evaluating the answer, and also seeing what it takes to get a…
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Free speech: Walk toward a window
I was in a building talking by cell phone, but my reception was poor. The fellow on the other end of the call said, “Walk toward a window.” Go to where cell phone waves move freely through the air. The same goes for free speech. On the web, Dave Winer urges us to do the…
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The we in web
“Let the web be the web,” writes Dave Winer. Its real, specific, far-reaching virtues [imagined in substantial part from the very start by Tim Berners-Lee] — know them, name them, let them continue to unfold for us. Yes, yes, yes. But actually, Dave Winer said, “We let the web be the web.” Understanding the web,…
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Activism and resistance is the work of decades
Americans who are not apolitical still tend to think about politics in terms of the current crisis and the upcoming election. On the average, we don't have a ready grasp, I believe, on a realistic timeline for our political challenges. The toolkit of activism that has a chance for success requires voting, but much more.…