By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Oct 16, 2012 at 12:15 PM ET
As many political commenters have noted, the first Obama/Romney debate a few weeks ago was our nation’s first Twitter debate. Twitter commentary during the debate was as potent, if not more, than the traditional post-debate spin from the talking heads.
Tonight, the RP Nation is being empowered to join in the fun. During tonight’s second debate (which begins at 9:00 PM EDY), we will be running a live feed on our home page that will include up-to-the-second tweeting of our bipartisan group contributing recovering politicians, including Michael Steele, Krystal Ball, Jeff Smith, and Rod Jetton.
And you too can join in. Just use the hashtag #RecoveringPol, and your tweets about tonight’s debate will be broadcast live at The Recovering Politician.
So bring on your spin, commentary, observations, and jokes. We look forward to opening the civil discussion to a whole new audience.
This year’s biggest YouTube obsession — earning the recent Zeitgeist-confirming attention of Saturday Night Live — is the South Korean pop sensation “Gangnam Style,” a truly phenomenal phenomenon for those of us who are vocally and lyrically challenged, and for those of us whose best dance move is imitating a jerky horse ride. If you’ve been living under a virtual rock, here are your five minutes of infamy:
Of course, YouTube is besieged with parody versions. Our favorite is “Jewish Style”. To rock in the new year South Korean style, enjoy it here (a bit NSFW):
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Sep 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Facebook and “People you might know”
Today I received a notice from Facebook that this young lady is a person I may know and want to friend.
First off, I can’t say that I have ever had in the past, have now, nor will ever have in the future any friends who look like this attractive young lady.
Why Facebook believes we are long lost friends from an earlier time in my life is confusing to me. For one thing, at an earlier time in my life, it is unlikely I was friends with this young gal when I was, oh…say, 35 and she was 9.
I don’t have anything against her and am sure she would make a good friend and have lots of interesting things she posts on her wall. Who knows, maybe we are “two peas in a pod” and have are like-minded on all the issues of the day. But I’m going to need more information before I am convinced.
This is probably the 3rd young, busty woman I’ve never met but Facebook has suggested as a friend over the last 9 months. I also notice that all the friends of these young ladies are, oddly, guys about my age. Which makes me wonder if it isn’t some sort of gag account used to see who is willing to try to friend them.
I’m flattered Mark Zuckerberg and his team take me for such a young and hip guy. But just because many of my posts are rambling, random and ridiculous doesn’t mean I am still in my late teens. Only that I sometimes sound like it.
On the other hand, I am most grateful that Facebook doesn’t send me pictures of people like this with the tag, “People you probably don’t know.” If they ever decide to start doing that, it’s find with me if I’m not notified about such things.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Sep 18, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Why I write on Facebook.
Several years ago I was watching one of those news magazine shows and the story was about the the explosive popularity of eBay. A very busy business man was interviewed who used eBay almost daily for routine purchase.
They asked him why he liked eBay so much. He paused for a moment and answered, “I work constantly on multiple business deals during the day and when I take a few minutes break I want a diversion that truly takes me away somehow. So I go the eBay on my laptop and check things I’m bidding on. It is a sort of release. Even if it’s only 5 minutes at a time 8-10 times a day. It helps center and refresh me.” Those aren’t the exact words, but they convey the idea of what he said.
I think I use Facebook the same way. It’s a sort of release several times a day that helps refresh and center me. And, yes, connect me –to people in the rest of my world (virtual world, anyway).
And at some point in my mid 40’s something happened to me. I was in a restaurant in Frankfort with several friends and someone at the table pointed out another table with a group of energetic young people. Normally when I’d see a table like that, I’d avoid them but I turned slowly to my (younger) friend and smiled broadly and said, “I can’t explain it, but I don’t really want to meet those young people—but I do have this overwhelming desire to mentor them. It’s bizarre. I just want to put my hand on their shoulder and offer advice. What the heck? Am I going through male menopause? Am I molting or something? What is happening to me? Oh, and by the way, I want to talk to you about your relationship with your father and how that is hindering you in your personal and professional life.”
OK, That’s not verbatim….but it’s in the ball park.
My friend didn’t want my advice. And the young people at the table didn’t either.
So I opened a Facebook account where I can write these random, disjointed, goofy but sometimes marginally (or accidentally) insightful thoughts that pop into my head. For fun and for free. Besides, I don’t have any other hobbies to take up my time.
And it is cathartic.
Oh, and the other thing that happened at about this same time, I decided it was better to be real and connect with people as you are than to be admired and never really connect with people as yourself. Which means, well, you just don’t care as much anymore what others think. What you think becomes more important to you. At least it did for me. Appropriate but real. Respectful but open.
And that is cathartic too. And surprising. I never know what is going to come out of me. So….I guess I’ll keep doing it until this molting phase is complete.
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Sep 14, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
With seemingly every news agency and blog conducting its own polling for the 2012 presidential race, it’s often tough to get a true picture where the race stands: Did Obama get a convention “bounce”? Will it be permanent? Who’s really ahead?
Over the past few years, I have come to rely on the New York Times‘ Nate Silver, whose diligent and informed analysis of all public polling data has become the gold standard in political prognostication.
I encourage you to check in periodically at his web site (Click here), but today’s post was so informative, I excerpt it below:
We have seen a shift toward Mr. Obama in the polls since the Democratic convention. It appears that if an election were held today, he’d win it by somewhere in the neighborhood of four or perhaps five percentage points.
If Mr. Obama is ahead by four to five points nationally, we’d certainly also expect him to post his share of leads by about that margin in swing states. Because of statistical variance and differences in methodology, some of the numbers are going to be a little bit better for him than others. But the consensus of the data ought to quite strong for him.
The Marist polls probably did meet that standard. But there were also two other polls of Ohio released on Thursday that showed Mr. Obama up only one point instead, along with a trio of Florida polls showing a tie there, on average. Those aren’t bad numbers for Mr. Obama exactly, but they aren’t great ones either — they are more like those we were seeing from the polling firms in question before the conventions.
There were also polls out on Thursday in several other swing states — in New Hampshire, Michigan and Colorado, for example. The data, taken as a whole, was pretty good for Mr. Obama, as he led in almost all of the surveys, although mostly by small margins.
But the forecast model is now judging Mr. Obama by a higher standard. Why? Because it had more or less fully priced in his convention bounce as of a few days ago. In fact, its assumption is that Mr. Obama’s polls probably slightly exaggerate his standing right now.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Aug 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
The Twitterization of Higher Education
I’m excited for my son who is starting college this fall at one of the nation’s finest liberal arts institutions, Centre College.
I am a passionate believer in the value of a liberal arts education. I think a strong liberal arts education is the best foundation for vocational and civic preparation. Developing and honing thinking and communication skills is the foundation for success in most every job and will help ensure informed civic involvement. And, the liberal arts just makes for a richer inner life. Besides, what other form of education can both best prepare you for the technical tasks ahead and simultaneously help you convincingly rationalize why you are glad you failed if things don’t work out?
The liberal arts just make practical sense.
And I am grateful that our technically sophisticated world waited until a few thousand contemplative years had passed before we began communicating in Tweets, texts, IMing, and Facebook messaging, Imagine if the Platonic dialogues had been a series of cell phone texts between Socrates and Plato.
Or if Henry David Thoreau had Tweeted (and ReTweeted) his reflections at Walden in a series of 140 or fewer character insights instead of writing prose?
Imagine the Federalist Papers being hammered out by Jay, Madison and Hamilton in Facebook posts, comments, messages—complete with “Likes” and links to inspirational quotes and funny pictures. And of course with text acronyms (ROFLMAO, LOL, OMG WTF and the like).
It just wouldn’t be the same. It would still be an education, I suppose, but not convey much that inspires or enlightens. And it would produce a society of Dennis Leary’s– fast talking, sarcastic, misanthropic entertainers. We need Dennis Learys, no doubt about it. But not that many.
I suppose there is certainly irony in the fact that I am putting these thoughts in a Facebook post. Our modern social media is brilliant at forcing us to think quickly and condense richer thoughts into communicable fragments that are adequate to the task. Twitter, Facebook and texting allows instantaneous communication to a mind-bogglingly vast audience. And that provides incredible societal benefits.
Those benefits are primarily for data-driven communications. And that makes our world a safer, higher functioning and more efficient place. But the liberal arts and contemplative life makes our world a more interesting place— and allows us to create a more meaningful life.
I embrace both. Why? The Golden Mean, as the Greeks called it. The often desirable middle between two extremes.
And I learned that as part of a liberal arts education.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Aug 7, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
About 16 months ago I agreed reluctantly to write a weekly column for the new Recovering Politician blog. I believed in the idea and wanted to support my friend Jonathan Miller’s efforts.
Personally, my hope was to write 4 or 5 obligatory columns and then start coming up with excuses for why I couldn’t continue and then just slip off his radar.
But that didn’t happen. I started making up excuses for why I couldn’t continue after my first and only column. I enjoyed writing the column but I didn’t want to be under a deadline, didn’t have the time to devote to a regular lengthy columns, and didn’t want to write about politics.
Jonathan then came up with a compromise. He said, “Don’t feel obligated to write anything. Don’t write about politics and make it informal and conversational —like when you write something on Facebook. (I had just gotten in the habit of posting random thoughts on Facebook.)
Jonathan went on, “But when you do feel the desire to write, post it on Facebook and if it is something that can work on the blog, I’ll post it.”
I was stuck. There was nothing to say “no” to. So I mumbled that it sounded like a good idea. And it was.
This my 200th post for The Recovering Politician. About 199 more than I thought I had time for under the original plan.
So, thanks Jonathan for the opportunity to write for your blog. Thanks also for the encouraging nudge. And thanks to all of my Facebook friends for putting up with my fits of conversational prose, impulsive observations, quirky insights and a dozen other kinds of random, mundane and fleeting thoughts.
Here’s the original piece for the RP that–in truth–I tried to come up with an excuse not to write before I finished it. But somehow got it done. And am glad I did.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Aug 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
The Onion dominates print humor on the web leaving an opening for video humor, which seemed more difficult by comparison.
Until Will Ferrell and some friends tried their hand at it by creating an oddly named website, Funny or Die.
And now they excel and dominate in this niche.
If you like dry humor and modern comedy, you gotta spend some time tooling around the Funny or Die website.
It’s been around for a while but recently seems to have made a significant leap in content. The quality has always been good. Now there’s plenty of it to check the site regularly
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jul 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Facebook advertising and paying for colonoscopies.
As I watch Facebook succumb to ad creep I am reminded of a ridiculous joke I suggested a couple of months ago to a friend as we discussed the need for, ahem!, colonoscopies and how to pay for them.
My idea was a simple, All-American pro-Capitalism approach. I thought of the most obvious solution that everyone else seemed to be missing.
Look, some people rent out their cars for ad space. We have ads in the most intimate public spaces, including restroom stalls. And don’t forget the human sandwich boards.
The solution was so simple, a child could have thought of it. Why not allow us to contract through our insurance providers to rent out our colons as advertising space?
Duh!!
When doctors are doing a scope they will see advertising campaigns specifically targeted to them. Ads for new medical equipment, new pharmaceutical medication, trips abroad, Mercedes Benzes and subscriptions to Cigar Aficionado. With the new advertising revenue derived from colon ads, we will be able for every American to be able to financially cover all the needed medical procedures involving their colon.
Health improves. Our health care system is more financially solvent. And doctors get interesting and relevant information about new marketplace opportunities while snaking through our colons looking for the presence of unusual new growths.
It’s a classic win, win, win.
And reminded me of the new spate of ads we are all subjected to now on Facebook. We are all being treated like doctors now, in an odd sort of way. I guess. There is always a silver lining if you look hard enough.
And also, if you look hard enough, there is another advertisement that just appeared. ; )
