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Friday, February 22, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:10 PM:
The Turkey comes limping into the twenty-first century. After seeing James Lileks' 404 page, I thought maybe I'd create one of my very own. Being somewhat new to this, there came the question, how? For the six other people out there who don't know, first you go to www.netcraft.com here to find out what server your host (or you) are running, then to the ultimate 404 site to find out what code to implement for that server type.By the way, for information on this and so much more, drop by the Webmonkey.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002
posted by gbarto at 9:13 PM:
For those who haven't been here before, the TurkeyBlog is one of several mini-sites living at gbarto.com. In addition, there is a Victor Hugo site with selected poems, a few translations and commentary. There is also an Amazon associates bookshop where you can find my recommendations for Victor Hugo, English literature and web site design. This page is mainly for my commentary, but is also where the whole gbarto.com family of sites posts its announcements.Other mini-sites include a mouse race, and a collection of poems that were used in Union Bank of Switzerland commercials a few years ago. Drop by and take a look.
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posted by gbarto at 9:03 PM:
More Hugo. Two more Hugo poems on the Hugo site, which is slightly redesigned. All seven books of Les Châtiments are now represented, as are the opening and closing poems. Coming soon, an earlier Hugo poem, "Ce siècle avait deux ans," and the first selections from Les Contemplations.* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:56 PM:
Jonah Goldberg hits the nail on the head in this piece on conservatives and ideology. I long ago gave up describing myself as conservative except to those I wished to irritate - I usually call myself a classical American liberal with Lockean leanings - precisely because Pat Buchanan wore the label. Yet when Buchanan challenged Bush the elder in '92, I was frequently irritated myself because the man had a few good points about what had gone wrong with Bush. But what do you do when the only person who will say the well is contaminated thinks dropping in cyanide will cure what ails? Buchanan's prescriptions were noxious - and unnecessary; he joined Bill Clinton in trashing a recovering economy as one of the more pestilential pits of hell and contributed to the unleashing of activism where governmental inaction was precisely what was called for. As it usually is. First Heinlein quote: When in worry, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout - The Cat who Walks through Walls. I.e., we make a lot of fuss about problems that will either resolve themselves or go unresolved; too often, we mess up the self-resolution with our intervention.As I write, I'm listening to the (not so) new Charlotte Church CD. I just ate a nice supper in a comfortable house. It's a seemingly nice existence. And yet too damn much of my day has been spent thinking about the arguments about campaign finance reform. Why? Because as Ben Caxton noted in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, like it or not, politics is only about as important as the air we breathe - or has the power to be if we don't keep a close eye on it. And right now our major political actors are voting themselves protections, even as our only hope of getting through an airport without a full body-cavity search is that a few more pols will accidentally be submitted to the same indignities as the rest of us. When I heard about Congressman John Dingell's ordeal, I have to admit I laughed out loud. As Figaro said, "We must laugh to avoid crying." Because if you don't laugh at powerfull John Dingell going through that, you have to think of the other seventy-year olds who didn't even get a sympathetic mention in the papers.
Having gone through that rant, I'd like to tone down the rhetoric just one notch, because while things could be better, they aren't as bad as the cultural warrior Buchanans or the freaked-out Libertarians say. I'll refer the Buchananites to Mickey Kaus, who is pointing out that stats on birth-out-of-wedlock are looking a little better - one of many places where the picture isn't as bleak as some say. And for the libertarians, I'll note that I snickered without worry at a pretty big politician - but apparently not an overlord. So what should we do with this? As a good conservative - er, classical liberal - I say, Conserve it! ... and build on it.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2002
posted by gbarto at 9:58 PM:
TurkeyBlog returns... with more Victor Hugo. Posted earlier tonight at the Victor Hugo division of gbarto.com, our first translation, Fable or History. Also we have an essay on problems of translation, including a specific discussion of what went into translating this poem.* * *
French Elections, 1st round
Second round special page
Second Round Results Map
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