Push Yourself Too Hard and It Might Get Hot

Please read the entire article here, but one part of the NY Times' article on student protests at various University of California campuses in response to a recent Board of Regents' vote passing a 32% tuition increase for next year is just too good to leave alone:

Indeed, many of the long-term demands are far beyond the reach of the Santa Cruz administrators, including the impeachment of Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California system; the elimination of the Regents’ positions, and an end to all student fees and student debts.

As someone who has recently passed through those joyous years that are American higher-education, I certainly empathize with students who are staring at a 32% tuition increase, but people, people, people, an end to all student fees and student debts? Let's get a hold of ourselves here, ladies and gentlemen.

Sure, it would be fantastic if we could all live in a world where college educations were dispensed like Werther's candy, but this is the real world, and unless the UC system has just made a colossal breakthrough on that whole "money tree" research they were doing out there at U.C. Santa Barbara, I think you're going to have to accumulate a bit of debt in exchange for a diploma.

Come to think of it, though, a lot of professors do wear cardigans like the grandpa in the Werther's commercials. Maybe there's something to that comparison, but I digress.

Twisting Into the Dark Parts of Large Midwestern Cities

Congratulations once again to Mr. John Middleton for correctly naming "Billie Jean" by Micheal Jackson as the Monday Song of the Day.

If there's a more enjoyable/ironic Michael Jackson lyric these days than "The kid is not my son", I will gladly hear your suggestions.

A couple of points on a Tuesday afternoon...

I fully understand the outrage over the AIG bonus situation/fiasco as voiced by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo*, but I can also appreciate the viewpoint articulated by Andrew Ross Sorkin in this post on the NY Times "Dealbook" blog.

What has gone unmentioned by Cuomo, Sorkin, and the rest of the experts out there? The fact that your tax dollars, and mine, are still going to subsidize the English Evil Empire, even after Liverpool thrashed them on Saturday by the score of 4-1.

What is a few million dollars to compensate people who helped create a global financial maelstrom versus the continued support of Ronaldo and Co.? In the (adapted) words of President Reagan,"Mr. Geithner...tear down this jersey."
Second, in about 30 minutes, I'm hopping on a bus with others from Baylor Law to head down to the metropolis that is Hearne, Texas to see a screening of the film American Violet, which centers on the work of a former BLS student and contains a bolo-tie wearing character similar to Prof. Osler. It should be interesting, and if anyone needs a Will Patton, Tim Blake Nelson, or Xzibit autograph, I might just be able to make your day.

*If you're scoring at home, that's the second straight day a Cuomo has been mentioned on Running Down a Dream. I'm starting to think this Cuomo/Middleton combo is more than mere coincidence. Conspiracy theory suggestions are welcome as always.

The Cretins Cloning and Feeding, and I Don't Even Own a TV

"I Dream of Denver" by David Brooks

The Pew Research Center just finished a study about where Americans would like to live and what sort of lifestyle they would like to have. The first thing they found is that even in dark times, Americans are still looking over the next horizon. Nearly half of those surveyed said they would rather live in a different type of community from the one they are living in at present.

Second, Americans still want to move outward. City dwellers are least happy with where they live, and cities are one of the least popular places to live...

Cities remain attractive to the young. Forty-five percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 would like to live in New York City. But cities are profoundly unattractive to people with families and to the elderly...

Third, Americans still want to go west. The researchers at Pew asked Americans what metro areas they would like to live in. Seven of the top 10 were in the West: Denver, San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Portland and Sacramento. The other three were in the South: Orlando, Tampa and San Antonio. Eastern cities were down the list and Midwestern cities were at the bottom.

Although Brooks did not address this in his column, I was, with a little wrangling, cajoling, and yes, outright bribery, able to obtain the release of the bottom three cities in the polling conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Here's what I found:

#7,345: West Memphis, AR

#7,346: Lubbock, TX

Let us not beat around the bush: Lubbock sucks. You and I have no love for Lubbock. Often, and this is just one man?s opinion, I could be wrong, I think Lubbock has about as much appeal as lard-fried Vienna sausages served in a pool of warm goat spit.

#7,347: Detroit, MI

This city has not always been a gentle place, but a series of events over the past few, frigid days causes one to wonder how cold the collective heart has grown.

It starts with a phone call made by a man who said his friend found a dead body in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building on the city's west side.

"He's encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks," the caller phoned to tell this reporter.

Ladies and gentlemen, G.O.B. Bluth may tell you that "the jury's still out on science", but the fact that those cities are at the bottom of the list is a fact as immutable as Pluto's status as a planet.

Wait, what's that?

Pluto's been downgraded?

Okay, forget you read any of this.

It's All the Same, Only the Names Will Change

Congratulations to Mr. Andrew Tuegel for correctly naming "Lovers in Japan" by Coldplay as the Monday Song of the Day.

As more and more newspapers teeter on the edge of financial ruin, Michael Hirschorn of The Atlantic offers some interesting thoughts on the possibly forthcoming end of print journalism as we know it.

If you’re hearing few howls and seeing little rending of garments over the impending death of institutional, high-quality journalism, it’s because the public at large has been trained to undervalue journalists and journalism. The Internet has done much to encourage lazy news consumption, while virtually eradicating the meaningful distinctions among newspaper brands.

"End Times" by Michael Hirschorn of The Atlantic.

It Doesn't Matter What I Say So Long as I Sing With Inflection

Congratulations to Ms. Nina Patterson for correctly naming "The Way" by Fastball as the Monday Song of the Day.

Welcome back to 1998, kids. Welcome back.

Good stuff here (as always) from Malcolm Gladwell...

This is the quarterback problem. There are certain jobs where almost nothing you can learn about candidates before they start predicts how they’ll do once they’re hired. So how do we know whom to choose in cases like that? In recent years, a number of fields have begun to wrestle with this problem, but none with such profound social consequences as the profession of teaching.

"Most Likely to Succeed: Who Do We Hire When We Can't Tell Who's Right for the Job?" by Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker.

The best part of that article might be Gladwell's subtle prediction that Chase Daniel will one day reach the same level of putridity as Joey Harrington, Tim Couch, and Ryan Leaf, but perhaps that's just me.

Plus, David Brooks offers his thoughts on Gladwell's latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success.

Yeah, Sure, I'll Tell My Story Again

I've often been told that I'm guilty of seeing too many Seinfeld parallels in real-life, but today, I'm absolutely sure of the connection, and this scares me.

Let me explain...

I grew up going to Wilderness Trek in Salida, Colorado, and worked there for 3 and a half summers during undergrad and my first year of law school. About two years ago, Outside magazine named Salida on its list of "Best Places to Live". Now, my intermittent summer home has received another national shout-out, this one coming from the Gray Lady herself, the New York Times.

"The Outdoors Life, With No Attitude" by Rachel Odell Walker.

This is where Seinfeld comes into play, my friends. Observe the following exchange:

GEORGE: Ah you have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she is allowed to infiltrate this world, then George Costanza as you know him, Ceases to Exist!

You see, right now, I have Relationship George, but there is also Independent George. That's the George you know, the George you grew up with -- Movie George, Coffee shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George.

JERRY: I, I love that George.

GEORGE: Me Too! And he's Dying Jerry! If Relationship George walks through this door, he will Kill Independent George! A George, divided against itself, Cannot Stand!

That's it exactly, ladies and gentlemen. National Salida is on a collision course with provincial Salida. The small, quiet town where I would pickup a burrito at Patio Pancake Place, look for outdoor gear at Headwaters, and avoid an instant contact high from Salida townies is on the highway towards becoming Aspen-lite.

P.S. I also enjoy how the slideshow in the article refers to Bongo Billy's, a local coffee-shop, as "Bong Billy's". That's what we might call a "Freudian Slip", my friends.

Just Don't Make It Last Any Longer Than It Has To

At the end of the first marathon, Pheidippides, the Greek messenger, cried out "Rejoice, We conquer" before collapsing into the dust of an Athenian street.

If you want a short, sweet recap of Pheidippides' experience without the whole, you know, dying thing, feel free to follow the course of tomorrow's NYC Marathon via this feature on the NY Times website.

The video tracking the race course is actually thousands of photographs taken along the course and played back at an increased rate of speed. Also, you can track the progress of the race through the five boroughs courtesy of a map located to the right of the video.

Unfortunately, the race organizers this year are not passing out pitchforks and torches this year to allow race participants to form an ad hoc mob to burn down both New and Old Yankee Stadiums. A man can dream, though.

She's as Sweet as Tupelo Honey

Congratulations to Ms. Amanda Pierce for correctly naming "Tupelo Honey" by Van Morrison as the Thursday Song of the Day.

Four years later, the writers of “The West Wing” are watching in amazement as the election plays out. The parallels between the final two seasons of the series (it ended its run on NBC in May 2006) and the current political season are unmistakable. Fiction has, once again, foreshadowed reality.

Following the Script: Obama, McCain and 'The West Wing'--Brian Stelter in today's NY Times.

Hey Man, Slow Down

Although I can't agree with its endorsement of Obama for President, I can tell you that this feature from the New York Times editorial board is one of the more interesting features by a newspaper that I have seen in awhile.

Feel free to peruse the Presidential endorsements by the Times editorial board all the way back to a fellow named Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

P.S. The most recent Republican endorsed by the Times? Ike in 1956.

Searching For An Answer Where the Question Is Unseen

Forget Joe the Plumber. Meet the newest American archetype: Patio Man.

For all the talk of plumbers and investment bankers, populists and elitists, Patio Man is still at the epicenter of national politics. He is the quintessential suburban American, the service economy worker, the guy who wears khakis to work each day, with the security badge on the belt clip around his waist.

He lives in northern Virginia, along the I-4 corridor near Orlando, Fla., in or near Columbus, Ohio, along the Front Range of Colorado, in the converging megalopolis between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and in many other places.

"Patio Man Revisited" by David Brooks in today's New York Times.

Just Like Way Back in the Days of Old

In my ongoing argument for David Brooks as the best op-ed columnist currently writing, I submit today's offering.

It begins with this:

In 1950, Dr. Seuss published a book called “If I Ran the Zoo.” It contained the sentence: “I’ll sail to Ka-Troo, and bring back an IT-KUTCH, a PREEP, and a PROO, a NERKLE, a NERD, and a SEERSUCKER, too!” According to the psychologist David Anderegg, that’s believed to be the first printed use of the word “nerd” in modern English.

And ends with this:

Barack Obama has become the Prince Caspian of the iPhone hordes. They honor him with videos and posters that combine aesthetic mastery with unabashed hero-worship. People in the 1950s used to earnestly debate the role of the intellectual in modern politics. But the Lionel Trilling authority-figure has been displaced by the mass class of blog-writing culture producers.

So, in a relatively short period of time, the social structure has flipped. For as it is written, the last shall be first and the geek shall inherit the earth.

Needless to say, it's worth a read.

"The Alpha Geeks" by David Brooks in today's New York Times.

So Many People, So Many People Pass

In what is quickly becoming a daily event at Running Down a Dream, I offer my congratulations to Mr. Jeremy Masten for correctly naming "Run" by Snow Patrol as the Wednesday Song of the Day. That's four days in a row, folks. It seems that Jeremy's current run is inversely related to the success of the Rangers (on a current 6 game losing streak). Everyone, for the good of the Rangers, I'm begging you to dethrone Mr. Masten.

It's not often that a national newspaper files a feature story with the dateline "Kokomo, Indiana", but with the never-ending slog that is the current Democratic nomination process, that has changed. My Dad grew up in Tipton, Indiana, which is about 20 miles southeast of Kokomo, and other than possessing the only "sitdown" McDonald's in America, there is nothing remarkable about the city.

With that said, it these "typical" American cities and towns that hold a tremendous amount of responsibility for determining the identity of the Democratic nominee this fall.

As the Democratic presidential hopefuls turned to Indiana as a new battleground in the fight for the nomination, they find themselves facing a different audience in places like Kokomo, a blue-collar city in the middle of endless expanses of farms north of Indianapolis. In some ways, these are voters not so unlike those in other Rust Belt states, like Pennsylvania, but with an added dose of nostalgia and a practical, Midwestern sensibility.

“We are manufacturing workers, farmers, beer drinkers, gun owners, pickup drivers,” said Karen Lasley, 64, who was volunteering on Wednesday morning in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s field office in Kokomo (one of 28 Mrs. Clinton has opened around the state along with Senator Barack Obama’s 22, including one just down the street). “We are full of pride for this country.”

Politically, though, Indiana is by no means monolithic: its terrain is more of a quilt, as elaborate as its tangled time-zone map, complicating matters for the campaigns as they decide where to devote time and money.

"For Indiana Voters, Talk of Change May Fall Flat" by Monica Davey in the New York Times.

This Is One Scene That's Going to Be Played My Way

Congratulations once again to Mr. Jeremy Masten for correctly naming "Dream On" by Aerosmith as the Sunday Song of the Day. Jeremy, I have to agree with you that "Dream On" represents Aerosmith's finest work and found its best use (in my opinion) to date in this ESPN SportsCentury "Greatest Moments" montage. "Dream On" begins around 1:37.

You see videos like that all the time on YouTube now, but I can still remember when this video premiered on ESPN in late 1999. In my 15-year old brain it was the greatest thing of all-time, narrowly besting the worthy contender of the nearly-fulfilled promise of a driver's license and a 1991 Toyota Camry with 100,000K+ miles.

I came across a the following story in the NY Times today, and the call to action is impossible to ignore, my friends.

Recently in Dallas, more than an hour before game time, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was in the locker room grinding on the Stairmaster, surrounded by several reporters — their microphones deployed, heads tilted away to avoid flying droplets of sweat.

A reporter for The Dallas Morning News, who writes a blog, asked Mr. Cuban about a bruised Dirk Nowitzki, referring to the star power forward as a “warrior” for his willingness to play while injured. “We’re not trading him to the Warriors,” said Mr. Cuban.

“Bloggers might make that point.” The comment was a bit of word play, but it illustrates how Mr. Cuban, a prolific blogger himself, feels about some of the bloggers who cover his team.

Last month Mr. Cuban sought to ban bloggers from the Mavericks’ locker room, but the National Basketball Association intervened, ruling that bloggers from credentialed news organizations must be admitted. Mr. Cuban then decided to let in any blogger — “someone on Blogspot who has been posting for a couple weeks, kids blogging for their middle school Web site or those that work for big companies.”

"Tension Over Sports Blogging" by Tim Arango of the New York Times.

You realize what this means, don't you?

I'm calling on The Blahg, Slowly Going Bald, The Jig and Twig, Osler's Razor, Living and Loving in Natal, Brazil, Prosso Speaks, Magnificent Vista, Alico Dreams, Chapter 2, Lovin' Life, Urban Cowboy, Yee of Little Faith, and everyone else out there in Blogfrica: Let's call Mark Cuban's bluff. I cannot wait to waltz into the Mavericks' locker-room while simultaneously introducing myself to Dirk Nowitzki as the Editor-in-Chief of Running Down a Dream.

There Was Nothing to Fear and Nothing to Doubt

They say the 21st century is going to be the Asian Century, but, of course, it’s going to be the Bad Memory Century. Already, you go to dinner parties and the middle-aged high achievers talk more about how bad their memories are than about real estate. Already, the information acceleration syndrome means that more data is coursing through everybody’s brains, but less of it actually sticks. It’s become like a badge of a frenetic, stressful life — to have forgotten what you did last Saturday night, and through all of junior high.

"The Great Forgetting" by David Brooks in today's NY Times.

I realize that at times this blog risks becoming a pro-David Brooks propaganda machine, but if you appreciate his opinion pieces, I would strongly suggest picking up both Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense.

Also, if you needed more incentive to pick up those books, he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer!

Early Morning, April 4, Shot Rings Out in the Memphis Sky, Free at Last, They Took Your Life

On the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, a few thoughts from around the interwebs:

• Forty years ago, American liberalism suffered a blow from which it has still not recovered. On April 4, 1968, a relatively brief but extraordinary moment of progressive reform ended, and a long period of conservative ascendancy began.The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the ensuing riots that engulfed the nation's capital and big cities across the country signaled the collapse of liberal hopes in a smoky haze of self-doubt and despair. Conservatives, on the run for much of the decade, found a broad new audience for their warnings against the disorders and disruptions bred by reform.--"When Liberalism's Moment Ended" by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post.

• Martin Luther King Jr. at least left behind a model of how to repair the social fabric. He was scholarly, formal, assertive and meticulously self-controlled in public. If Barack Obama’s presidential campaign represents anything, it is the triumph of King’s early-60s style of activism over the angry and reckless late-60s style. King was in crisis when he was gunned down. But his inspiration is outlasting his critics.--"The View from Room 306" by David Brooks in the New York Times.

• Martin Luther King Jr. died at age 39; today, the 40th anniversary of his death, is the first time he has been gone longer than he lived.Figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have tried to claim his place on the American stage. But at most they have achieved fame and wealth. What separated King from any would-be successor was his moral authority. He towered above the high walls of racial suspicion by speaking truth to all sides. Now comes Barack Obama, a black man and a plausible national leader, who appeals across racial lines. But to his black and white supporters, Mr. Obama increasingly represents different things.--"Obama and King" by Juan Williams in the Wall Street Journal.

• King is widely remembered as an inspirational speaker and moral leader. But John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute concludes that his more mundane efforts may end up mattering as much: “I wish more people thought about the long, hard work he did behind the scenes on policy and negotiation.” Rows continue over the relative merits of race-blind policies and the need to level out America’s inequalities. Four decades after King’s death much remains to be done.--"A Dream Deferred?" in The Economist.

Like You Reached Right Into My Head and Turned on the Light Inside

Somehow, simply by posting this article, I'm fulfilling Brian Stelter's prophecy.

No idea what I'm talking about? Keep reading.

According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one.

“There are lots of times where I’ll read an interesting story online and send the U.R.L. to 10 friends,” said Lauren Wolfe, 25, the president of College Democrats of America. “I’d rather read an e-mail from a friend with an attached story than search through a newspaper to find the story.”

In one sense, this social filter is simply a technological version of the oldest tool in politics: word of mouth. Jane Buckingham, the founder of the Intelligence Group, a market research company, said the “social media generation” was comfortable being in constant communication with others, so recommendations from friends or text messages from a campaign — information that is shared, but not sought — were perceived as natural.

Ms. Buckingham recalled conducting a focus group where one of her subjects, a college student, said, “If the news is that important, it will find me.”

Also, something that is sure to drive my Dad crazy...the Facebook/My Space friend stats for the various candidates (also found in the Stelter piece):

• Barack Obama-1,000,000 (combined)
• Hillary Rodham Clinton- 330,000 (combined)
• John McCain- 140,000 (combined)

Somehow, I think John McCain doesn't give a second thought to websites like Facebook and My Space, and frankly, I think that's a good thing. He's the kind of guy who always seemed more closely suited to the 19th century rather than the 21st. We will see in November if the American electorate thinks that is an asset or a liability.

The Road I Need to Travel Down

Whether you loved him or hated him, it's difficult to argue with the proposition that William F. Buckley's death today represents the end of a life that had as much to do with the current political landscape of America as any in the 20th century.

• NY Times obituary
• Washington Post obituary
• Jonah Goldberg at "The Corner" on National Review Online
• Professor Osler's take on WFB's death
  

As George Will once said, "before there was Ronald Reagan there was Barry Goldwater, before there was Goldwater there was National Review, and before there was National Review there was William F. Buckley."

I Was Chewin' Gum for Something to Do

Congratulations to Mr. Jeremy Masten for correctly naming "Never Let You Go" by Third Eye Blind as the Tuesday Song of the Day.

A few years ago, I jokingly referred to Facebook as the "Black Hole of Productivity", but it seems that some folks out there believe that between Facebook and a black hole, you might have better luck escaping from the former.

Are you a member of Facebook.com? You may have a lifetime contract.Some users have discovered that it is nearly impossible to remove themselves entirely from Facebook, setting off a fresh round of concern over the popular social network’s use of personal data.

While the Web site offers users the option to deactivate their accounts, Facebook servers keep copies of the information in those accounts indefinitely. Indeed, many users who have contacted Facebook to request that their accounts be deleted have not succeeded in erasing their records from the network.

“It’s like the Hotel California,” said Nipon Das, 34, a director at a biotechnology consulting firm in Manhattan, who tried unsuccessfully to delete his account this fall. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

"How Sticky is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free" by Maria Aspan in the February 11th edition of the NY Times.

In the Kingdom of the Good and True

David Brooks engages in a personal interview: "Questions for Dr. Retail" in today's NY Times.

The consumer marketplace has been bifurcating for years! It’s happening because the educated and uneducated lead different sorts of lives. Educated people are not only growing richer than less-educated people, but their lifestyles are diverging as well. A generation ago, educated families and less-educated families looked the same, but now high school graduates divorce at twice the rate of college graduates. High school grads are much more likely to have kids out of wedlock. High school grads are much more likely to be obese. They’re much more likely to smoke and to die younger.

Their attitudes are different. High school grads are much less optimistic than college grads. They express less social trust. They feel less safe in public. They report having fewer friends and lower aspirations. The less educated speak the dialect of struggle; the more educated, the dialect of self-fulfillment

Did you hear the message of Clinton’s speech Tuesday night? It’s a rotten world out there. Regular folks are getting the shaft. They need someone who’ll fight tougher, work harder and put loyalty over independence.

Then did you see the Hopemeister’s speech? His schtick makes sense if you’ve got a basic level of security in your life, if you’re looking up, not down. Meanwhile, Obama’s people are so taken with their messiah that soon they’ll be selling flowers at airports and arranging mass weddings. There’s a “Yes We Can” video floating around YouTube in which a bunch of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and the guy from the Black Eyed Peas are singing the words to an Obama speech in escalating states of righteousness and ecstasy. If that video doesn’t creep out normal working-class voters, then nothing will.

Speaking of which...

I Can't Be Holding On to What You Got, When All You Got is Hurt

Forget yesterday's post about Beijing hosting the first "Green Olympics". NY Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof presents what he believes may be a more apt title for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.
The Beijing Olympics this summer were supposed to be China’s coming-out party, celebrating the end of nearly two centuries of weakness, poverty and humiliation. Instead, China’s leaders are tarnishing their own Olympiad by abetting genocide in Darfur and in effect undermining the U.N. military deployment there. The result is a growing international campaign to brand these “The Genocide Olympics.”