Saturday, June 05, 2004

Former US President Ronald Reagan died today at 93. Film actor, corporate spokesman, two-term California governor, two-term president. Conservative. Survived assassination. I paid for this microphone. Are you better off after four years of Carter? I didn't know we were selling arms to Iran. Win one for the gipper. Where's the rest of me? 

Reports: BBC, CBS, AP, CNN, Reuters TV, MSNBC, Reuters. 

Listening to the TV reports of the Reagan presidency, you'd think we had been governed by God Himself for eight years. I liked what his son said, I paraphrase. He was very personable, a genuinely nice person. But for such a nice person isn't it strange that he didn't have any friends? That's where the coverage should start. The paradox of the man. They're interviewing James Watt on MSNBC now. He was a pariah during the 80s. Not no more. Now he's a man of Great Inner Peace because he served under the mighty Reagan. Hoi. The press only deals with stories in the extreme. Tomorrow on Meet The Press, Russert will be trying to trick some current politico into actually saying something. And twenty years from now, when that same person is dead, they'll be saying what a religious experience it was being around him. Feh. Reagan was a smelly old dude, even when he was Prez. Sorry he's dead, but he lived to 93, and he wasn't really alive for the last few years and truth be told, I'm much more concerned about the young Americans dying in Iraq for no good reason that I can figure out. 

Disclaimer: I never voted for Reagan. 

Prediction: Reagan is going to be Dubya's virtual running mate.  

1992: "In my life's journey over these past eight decades, I have seen the human race through a period of unparalleled tumult and triumph. I have seen the birth of communism and the death of communism. I have witnessed the bloody futility of two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. I have seen Germany united, divided and united again. I have seen television grow from a parlor novelty to become the most powerful vehicle of communication in history. As a boy I saw streets filled with model-T's as a man I have met men who walked on the moon." 

Really Simple Syndication: "I'd like the vendors to participate, in several ways, by keeping pricing and technical information about the products up to date, and to help us understand features supported by their product, and how they compare to competitive offerings. Of course, I'd like to have the claims verified by users of the products." 

Jonathan Dube: 101 ways to improve your news site. 

Sean Gallagher: The Syndication Standards Dance. 

Bay City News: "San Francisco downtown streets are expected to become the scene of anti-war demonstrations on Saturday." 

Orlowski: "Not content with asking for an arm and a leg from consumers and artists, the music industry now wants your fingerprints, too." 

NY Times: "Kerry is able to unleash a kennel full of attack dogs, all standing to gain from impressing the man who could be their boss." 

Russell Beattie: "Does Silicon Valley have blinders on?" 

Rogers Cadenhead: "I joined the RSS board for three reasons." 

A snapshot of the super-nasty politics in syndication-land. He characterizes the proposal to clarify the RSS 2.0 spec in response to requests from aggregator developers as a "shitfest." There's no way to win with people like this. This is a problem with open development on the Internet. People form opinions with very little information.  

Mary Jo Foley: "Redmond's counting on new RSS feeds, newsgroup readers and online-chat tools to provide the backbone for its new and improved community platform." 

SJ Merc: Google, Yahoo face off in suit.