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Buyer's remorse can taint high tech purchases

My friend Richard Einhorn of Tristero brought my attention to a revealing article about high tech and buyer's remorse in the New York Times. I last grumbled about some high tech gadgets when I discussed the Palm Zire 71 personal digital assistant I had received as a gift, but was ambivalent about. The premise of the article in the NYT is that much of the high tech sells bounty ends up unused.

People acquire these things -- hand-held personal digital assistants, flatbed scanners, compact disc copiers and a host of other objects -- because they promise to make life more efficient, more fun, or, some confess, simply because they appear to help them keep up with what their "wired" friends and neighbors have.

But many such products are simply too complicated for their own good. And all too often, the buyers find that they cannot really change their lives just by acquiring something new and different.

A fellow resident of Puddletown is among the people profiled.

Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, 29, a freelance film editor in Portland, Ore., is all too familiar with the problem of buying things she does not use. Her digital camera sits, as if glued in place, on a bookshelf in her bedroom. And Ms. Vichit-Vadakan's CD burner, which was supposed to allow her to make copies of music she loves for her friends, is the embodiment of a promise gone awry.

"I was hoping to get organized about backing up my files and burning CD's for friends and making copies of CD's and making copies of my software, which they say you're supposed to do," she said. "But nope, I never did any of that."

It's not all her fault. She never did get the CD burner to work on her computer. Weeks, then months passed, and she finally boxed it back up to get it off her desk. Now she is trying to sell it on Craig's List, a Web site built around classified advertisements, but so far there are no takers.

"I guess CD burners have gotten a lot faster," she said. "No one wants this one."

My experience echoes Veronica's. I have a brand new year-old all-in-one printer, copier, fax and scanner, that I purchased late in its sales cycle for only $100. However, I have never actually used my bargain. Epson never produced drivers for Macintosh OS X for most of its printers, scanners and all-in-ones, including the Stylus Scan 2000. Since I rarely venture into Classic, I don't employ this lovely hunk of high tech for any of the things it can do. Efforts to resell it have been unsuccessful. My guess is that people can't believe someone is selling a new whiz-bang device so cheaply; for about the cost of replacement ink cartridges. I did sell my unused $169 Scanmaker SCSI scanner to a neighbor for $30, though. I was able to score another $20 by reselling the unused software on eBay. Since Apple had dropped SCSI ports and I had to replace the last computer I had with one, there wasn't a better option. My newest digital camera, a Pentax Optio 330 is dandy, and much neglected. As is my cordless mouse and an unopened Apple Plaintalk microphone that resides in the back of the hall closet.

A psychiatrist and remorse buyer interviewed by the NYT sheds some light on why we do this.

Julie Marcuse, 57, a psychoanalyst in Manhattan, has the advantage of knowing how to apply cogent psychological analysis to a behavior pattern she knows all too well.

Not long after buying a Webcam that eventually ended up back in its box, Dr. Marcuse bought a scanner. That, too, was a bust. The scanner software created a series of conflicts with other software on her computer. She gave it away.

"I just wanted it out of my house," she said.

"I think we're usually pursuing a fantasy of empowerment when we buy these things," Dr. Marcuse said.

Asked why people have trouble learning to be more wary, Dr. Marcuse referred to "an endearing optimism" on the part of consumers. "Hope springs eternal, you know."

But what about the Palm Zire 71, you ask? I exchanged it for a Palm Tungsten C. I wanted that PDA because I like to use Wi-Fi. My thinking was that I would take it with me instead of my laptop some of the time. I would be able to read my daily sites using the Web service Avantgo and maybe even blog from the PDA if I purchased an attachable keyboard. So far, Avantgo has refused to sync with the Tungsten C, which uses Palm's new operating system, OS 5. There is no Mac software for OS 5 from Avantgo. I also have not located a browser that will fit material to the small screen. (Netspring, a browser I used with my Palm m500 series PDA is not compatible with OS 5.) The MP3 player capability will require I purchase compatible software and yet another pair of earphones. I may need to buy a new microphone to use the voice recorder.

Buyers beware.

Portland 7 case ends with whimper

It's a wrap, as they say in the newspaper business. With the guilty pleas of the two remaining Portland Seven defendants who are in custody last week, the case came to an end.

The last members of the so-called "Portland Seven" in custody pleaded guilty today in federal court for participating in a plot to join the Taliban's fight against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Jeffrey Leon Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford agreed to a plea bargain that will result in both serving 18 years in federal prison. Both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to levy war against the United States.

Battle and Ford are among six men and a woman who were charged with conspiracies to wage war against the United States, to provide material support and resources to al-Qaida, and to contribute services to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Some also faced firearms charges. The remaining counts against Battle and Ford will be dropped after they are sentenced Nov. 24, according to the deal.

In addition, the only one of the septet who apparently made it to Afghanistan is said to have been killed in combat near the Pakistani border.

Pakistani troops battling an al-Qaida commando group this month killed Habis Abdulla al Saoub, the veteran Afghan fighter who tried to lead a squad of Portland residents overseas to potential martyrdom.

U.S. officials say they are convinced al Saoub died Oct. 2 with seven others during Pakistan's operation in a rugged area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The FBI is seeking formal confirmation from Pakistan.

. . . Al Saoub, 37, was wanted in Portland as the leader of a group of men who tried to reach Afghanistan two years ago to fight U.S. troops. Five men and one woman have pleaded guilty to participating in the failed mission that ended on the Chinese-Pakistan border. Al Saoub never returned from China, evading capture despite a $5 million reward.The Jordanian native lived in the Portland area from 1996 until late 2001, when he and the others launched their mission to Afghanistan. In the 1980s, al Saoub was an Arab mujahedeen fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials describe the moutainous, isolated area where al Saoub was allegedly slain as being a redoubt for al-Qaida and out of their control. They mounted the offensive in which he is thought to have been killed Oct. 2 in the village of Baghar.

I see some grounds for concern about the length of the sentences offered Battle, Ford and October Lewis, the least active of the seven. John Walker Lindh, who actually participated in fighting, was sentenced to only two years more than Battle and Ford. Lewis, Battle's wife, has agreed to a term of three and a half years. That seems lengthy considering the limited role she played in the conspiracy and her willingness to testify against the others. I fear this may fit into the pattern of sentencing African-Americans to longer prison terms for behavior similar to or less egregious than that of white defendants. However, due to the small number of persons convicted under the Patriot Act,it is difficult to know if disproportionality is occurring.

A defense lawyer for the Portland Seven has no doubt race is an issue.

One of Ford's attorneys, Stanley Cohen of New York City, said in a post-plea news conference that his client pleaded guilty, in part, because he is "a black man, a black activist labeled as a terrorist by the media without a trial who doesn't stand a chance" of getting a fair trial."

Cohen says polls conducted for the defense revealed potential jurors overwhelmingly perceived the Portland Seven as guilty.

There are doubtlessly bloggers who will give the episode the full 'those awful terrorists' treatment. That will occur despite the fact the evidence against most of the defendants consists of talk, talk and more talk. If they really were determined to commit terrorist acts, the long fallow period between their return from China and being taken into custody is inexplicable. What I mainly see in this saga is something more prosaic. This is an object lesson in what can happen when people are too vulnerable to the blandishments of 'mighty mouths,' i.e., the folks who are always so willing to tell other people what to think or do. Most of the defendants appear to have simply jumped on a bandwagon without giving much thought to what doing so meant. Now, they will have time to do plenty of thinking while residing in government housing. I don't believe the Portland Seven are that different from many, maybe even most, people. Some manipulative sort gives'em their marching orders and they are off on a frolic without a clue to the reason why.

My heart goes out to the families of the Portland Seven. By a rough count, at least a dozen children have been left fatherless by the guilty pleas and alleged death. The loss of a father's income alone can be enough to doom the children of prisoners to poverty. I know federal law precludes convicts making a profit from their stories, but I hope there is a way to help these children not pay for the errors of their parents.

Pleasure, pain and Rush Limbaugh

Let me start with an admission. I have never purchased a drug stronger than Tylenol with codeine in my life, and that was with a prescription. My illicit drug use is limited to the usual college and law school toking. (Marijuana is very popular at many law schools.) So, I approach the topic of drug addiction without personal experience.

However, like other writers, and cats, I just have to know about things. So, I've been probing the topic for years. One of my most anthologized short stories is about a drug addict. That leads people to think I know the turf. To the extent I do, it is because of having focused on it as a reporter and continued that research subsequently. One of the aspects I have been wondering about for a long time is the relationship between drug use and hedonism. Is the pleasure derived from hardcore drug highs so extreme that those of us who haven't had the experience are clueless about ecstasy? Are the relatively short lives of addicts an understandable exchange for the pleasure derived from drug use? What about pain? How much of it are people willing to endure in return for the high?

A new angle to the saga of a conservative talk show host's admission to addiction (shall we call it 'Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Junkie'?) has led me to inquire into the issue of drug use and hedonism again.

Limbaugh's confession came a week after a former housekeeper went public with accusations that she supplied Limbaugh with thousands of black-market pain pills over a four-year period.

. . .They also triggered renewed speculation about a possible connection between his drug abuse and his sudden, almost total, loss of hearing three years ago.

Lorcet, one of the drugs that his housekeeper claimed to have supplied Limbaugh, has been linked to abrupt deafness.

. . .Limbaugh's broadcast confession caps a dismal two weeks for the broadcaster, who lost his job as an ESPN commentator after he claimed Philadelphia Eagles Donovan McNabb has been overrated by sports journalists because he's black.

That was followed quickly by a story in the National Enquirer detailing the accusations of his former housekeeper, Wilma Cline.

Cline -- whose husband, David, has a two-decade criminal record including several drug-trafficking charges -- said she provided Limbaugh with black-market Lorcet, OxyContin and hydrocone between 1998 and 2002.

All three drugs are synthetic opiates, chemical cousins of morphine and heroin, and highly addictive.

Cline said Limbaugh gave her cigar boxes full of money to pay for the drugs, sometimes as many as 4,000 pills in a seven-week period.

The relationship between taking Lorcet and losing one's hearing is established, but no one but Limbaugh's doctors knows for sure about him. (If he told them about his drug abuse.)

Since Limbaugh continued using the illicit drugs after his hearing loss, it is logical to conclude he considered deafness an acceptable trade-off for the pleasure of using the drugs. This is not an isolated phenomenon, of course. Any user of drugs proven to be harmful, from cigarettes to heroin, sacrifices part of his or her health. A lung here, a liver there, some deafness, an amputation if the steroids backfire. Misery between bouts of transport.

It seems to me there a kind of cost/benefit analysis occuring among addicts. They may decide the pleasure is worth the pain. If they do, that could explain why rehabilitation usually fails. The public health system, on the other hand, assumes the pain of addiction, and the upheaval it causes, is not worth the pleasure. Perhaps this dichotomy is the key to deciding what to do about the millions of drug addicts in America. It suggests the current one-size-fits-all assumption, that every addict really wants to quit, is not accurate. Until the relationship between addiction and hedonism is more thoroughly investigated, we will not know how the monies allocated to drug education and treatment can be spent most usefully.

Biography: A message from Moose

If Montgomery County Maryland officials were genuinely concerned that former police chief Charles Moose's book Three Months in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper represented a conflict of interest, they may lament having convinced him to resign. It doesn't. If any law enforcement personnel believe the narrative might jeopardize the prosecution of the snipers, they too can release their breaths. The book doesn't do that, either. It isn't the kind of production that threatens either civilians or cops.

What Moose's effort is is an autobiography that includes some information about the search for the Washington, D.C., area snipers this time last year. There is some new and some clarifying material about the investigation in the book.

Other assumptions people made about Moose's agenda then and now may be inaccurate, as well. He describes the investigation as a shared responsibility, with three agencies taking the lead. He credits Agent Gary Bald of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Agent Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms with having played as much of a role in the investigation as he did. Bald was able to expedite much of the investigating because the FBI is a much faster moving entity than local law enforcement. For example, the tree trunk in Tacoma, Washington, Muhammad had fired shots into was whisked to a national lab in hours under the FBI's auspices. The ATF both located the negligent gun seller who allowed the suspects to get access to the Bushmaster assault weapon and confirmed the match between the gun and recovered bullets and cartridges beyond a reasonable doubt within hours of recovery of the gun.

Moose's major contribution to the probe was being the face of it and communicating with the suspects. I don't believe the latter role can be overestimated. But for Moose's ability to establish a rapport with the two, they would not have continued to send messages to the investigators. Indeed, they could have ended their spree and disappeared into the underbelly of America. The first message was the tarot card found near the school where a teenager was shot. When its existence was leaked, Moose was able to reassure the suspects by insisting the media, not the police, were responsible. That led to subsequent messages, letters left at two other sites of shootings. The suspects also increased their phone communications after Moose's responses, making important mistakes in the process, such as the slip about a shooting in Montgomery, Alabama. Those errors in their communication with the task force were ultimately their undoing.

Charles Moose' other, and perhaps, more significant, reason for writing a book is to tell his own story of success and, sometimes, failure. That story is interesting because it chronicles both a society and an individual. Moose grew up in a part of North Carolina I know well. In many ways, his memories parallel those of my older brother and sister. Key to those memories are race. Moose remembers the segregated neighborhoods of the times, the signs telling people of color they could not eat in restaurants and an active Ku Klux Klan. Since I am younger than he is, I have no memory of segregation de jure. However, I do recall a cross-burning. The KKK burned a cross on the lawn of the dentist who lived down the street from us when I was in elementary school. The tensions left over from a few years previous were also still very much present when this native North Carolinian became cognizant of the world around her.

Moose went on to predominantly white settings such as the University of North Carolina and Portland, Oregon, where he was a policeman for more than 20 years. However, the race problem didn't go away just because he moved from one part of the country to another. Incidents when he complained about discriminatory treatment would leave the only blemishes on his reputation as a police officer. In that odd way white people too often have of blaming people of color for daring to criticize any of them, Moose became the problem, not the persons who had treated him in racist ways.

Moose was chief of police in Portland when I moved here. He had held the office since the summer of 1993. His greatest achievement has been to end the high rate of aggravated assaults and murders caused by gangs in the city. Seattle and Portland, and, to a lesser extent, Salem and Vancouver, had developed severe problems with the Bloods and the Crips when many families from southern California immigrated to the Pacific Northwest during the 1980s and 1990s. Through a combination of community policing and a special gang squad, Moose's department was able to eliminate the bloody footprints of the gangs, reducing Portland homicides by two-thirds. Only during the last year has the gang problem begun to recur, with some of those previously incarcerated now released and Hispanic gangs becoming larger and more active.

No one works all the time. Charles Moose has been less successful in his personal life than in his public role. Despite growing up middle-class, he has suffered his share of family tragedy. His mother died in her early 40s and his father would succumb to Alzheimer's before he turned 60. His older brother, David, suffered some kind of psychiatric trauma that left him dysfunctional, and homeless much of the time, from his 20s until his own early death. Moose's sister, Dorothy, seems the most stable member of the family, though her homosexuality must have been quite a surprise to a straight arrow like him. His own first marriage became continuing grounds for acrimony. The initial Mrs. Moose, Linder, has never forgiven him for eventually wedding Sandy, the woman he carried on an affair with while they were married. Only as he neared adulthood did David, Moose's son, form a solid relationship with his father. Though the former chief says he is pleased with his current domestic situation, he regrets having missed most of his only child's childhood.

I haven't said anything about Charles Fleming, Moose's co-author. That is because there is hardly anything to say. I expected him to contribute the abilities of an experienced writer to the project. But, despite his name being on the jacket, there is no evidence Fleming contributed anything to the book. The writing is that of a nonprofessional -- unpolished, repetitious and lacking in expressiveness. Moose could have written this book with no help. . . and I suspect he did.

My opinion of Moose did change while reading Three Weeks in October. I realized that, despite having successfully completed two advanced degrees, he is no intellectual. Instead, he is a person who is able to combine an academic understanding of his subject area, law enforcement, with the nuts and bolts know-how to get things done. A consummate pragmatist. Consider one of Moose's achievements in Portland -- cleaning up a housing development that was festering with crime. He used funds he acquired by applying for a community development block grant. One of the things he did with the money was to set up a small community policing office in the development. However, his fellow cops refused to come by and he didn't have the power to force them. His response was to install a color television set in the community policing office. Policemen began to come by to watch football on the television set. There were soon enough officers on hand whenever they were needed in the neighborhood. An intellectual might have ended up frustrated when his plans were marred by a lack of cooperation from other cops. A street smart officer might not have gone through the mind numbing bureacratics of applying for the grant in the first place. But, the combination of willingness to jump through bureaucratic hoops and the moxie needed to get bodies into that community policing office worked wonders together.

Portland's next police chief had a much bumpier ride than Moose. Some of the citizenry came to regret Moose's departure for the East Coast and asked him to reconsider the position. Obviously, even if the man decides to return to law enforcement, he can't be everywhere. However, I believe the strengths that have made him a better than average police chief can be cloned. Moose's blend of academic theory and real world practice are a combination that should be sought in leaders in law enforcement.

Though Three Weeks in October is not an extraordinary book, I believe it is a fine introduction to both the realities of police work and the realities of what it means to be a proud, capable person of African descent in America.

Note: I purposely did not read any reviews of Charles Moose's book until after I wrote my review two days ago. Since, I have browsed the responses at Amazon. The outpouring of hatred toward Moose shocked even me, not exactly a stranger to bigotry. I have seen similar material at white supremacist sites, but thought people would behave better at a general audience venue.

Law: Portland 7 defendants await evidentiary ruling

As the Portland Seven continues to shrink, there is new potential trouble for one of the two remaining reachable defendants. He has allegedly been linked to a defendant in a terrorism case in another state.

PORTLAND - Federal prosecutors in Virginia said they have linked the leader of a U.S. Islamic charity arrested this week to Portland terrorism suspect Patrice Lumumba Ford.

Ford received a salary from a local chapter of the Virginia-based group, the American Muslim Foundation, in fall 2000 and spring 2001, according to checks presented by prosecutors in an Alexandria, Va., federal courtroom.

Ford worked as a driver for the charity, picking up Muslim refugees at the Portland airport and helping them get settled, according to local Muslim leaders.

. . .The documents came to light in a federal case against Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, head of the American Muslim Foundation. Al-Amoudi was arrested and accused of acting as a courier to funnel money from Libya to terrorist groups in Syria. He was detained in England last month with $340,000 in U.S. currency, according to an affidavit.

Al-Amoudi said that his fund-raising travels were intended for Muslim organizations in the United States, according to court papers. But the government contends that he was among a group of Muslim activists involved in a web of charities raising money for terrorist groups.

Ford and Jeffrey Battle are the last of the defendants in custody to maintain their innocence. The only female defendant, Battle's wife, pleaded guilty to lesser charges Sept. 26.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- October Lewis, one of seven Portland-area residents charged with conspiring to help Al Qaeda and the Taliban fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty Friday to money laundering.

She will serve three years in minimum or medium-security federal prison.

In exchange, she will testify against her former husband, Jeffrey Leon Battle and another defendant, according to the agreement read in [the] federal courthouse Friday.

In addition, prosecutors dropped charges against her of conspiracy to levy war against the United States, to contribute services to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and to provide material support and resources to Al Qaeda.

She could have faced life in prison if convicted on all counts.

The Bilal brothers entered guilty pleas to more serious charges Sept. 18.

Two brothers who were among seven people accused of aiding terrorists pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of conspiring to help al-Qaida and the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan.

Ahmed Bilal, 25, and his brother, Muhammad Bilal, 23, appeared before U.S. District Judge Robert Jones to formally enter their pleas. Jones had announced the plea agreement Wednesday.

The Portland brothers also pleaded guilty to firearms charges in exchange for having the main charge of conspiracy to levy war against the United States dismissed.

In the plea deal, Ahmed Bilal agreed to a prison term of 10 to 14 years, while his younger brother agreed to eight to 14 years. Jones did not set a sentencing date.

The brothers had been accused of traveling to China with four other men shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack in a failed attempt to enter Afghanistan and fight with the Taliban.

Maher "Mike" Hawash had entered a similar plea and agreed to testify against his co-defendants Aug. 8, beginning the crumbling of the Portland Seven's defense.

Ford and Battle, who are said to have some of the strongest evidence against them, are scheduled to be tried in January.

The remaining defendant, Habis al Saoub, is thought to have not returned to the United States from the Middle East. He is reportedly the leader of the group.

The men have said they would have taken up arms in defense of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Defense attorneys for Battle and Ford have attempted to prevent evidence gathered using new anti-terrorism laws from being admitted.

Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys are dueling over whether some of the evidence against the Portland Seven -- collected under the USA Patriot Act -- should be suppressed.

In response to a defense request to block some evidence, prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones to find that the act's foreign intelligence-gathering provisions were used properly against two of the defendants, Jeffrey Leon Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford, because they were "agents of a foreign power."

But at the same time -- citing national security concerns -- the prosecutors declined to give the defendants the information they say proves the assertion.

Instead, they asked Jones to rule on the contested evidence based on classified information provided only to him. And they asked Jones to keep the information secret under a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows him to do so.

. . .The contested evidence includes intercepted and recorded conversations on residential and cell phones belonging to the two targeted defendants, Battle and Ford; e-mail exchanges on their computers; and conversations picked up by an electronic monitoring device, or "bug," that had been planted in the Southwest Portland apartment that Battle shared with his ex-wife, Portland Seven defendant October Martinique Lewis.

The motion to suppress will be argued Oct. 16.

Note: This article contains more information about the applicability of the Patriot Act to the Portland Seven case.

Technology: New Handspring Treo eases PDA-Plus confusion

I recently described the confusion the PDA-Plus market can engender.

Plus? The PDA-Ps offer tiny digital cameras, voice recorders, Bluetooth connectivity, MP3 players, WiFi, built-in keyboards or phones -- and there may be a wee kitchen sink in research and development.

This particular model, the Palm Zire 71, intended for the non-enterprise market, has a digital camera and an MP3 player. The problem is I would have chosen different pluses if I had been the buyer. I already have a good digital camera, the Pentax Optio 330, that I don't use often enough. My MP3 player, the deservedly famous iPod, can't be bested. If I had been the person making the decision, I would have known what plus features to select. Most likely, I would have shopped for WiFi, so I could use the PDA with my Tmobile account and the free 802.11 networks in Portland and Seattle. Second choice would have been a voice recorder for memos and short interviews. If I could find a PDA with a cell phone that did not tie me to an undesirable service provider, I would consider that, too.

. . .There are two things we can learn from my predicament. If you are in the market for a PDA, be sure to examine the features offered closely and decide which ones you can actually use. For example, unless you have a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or printer, you will have to purchase adapters for any peripheral you hope to use to communicate with a PDA with Bluetooth built in. WiFi might prove useless in an area where there aren't many access points. And, many of us already have MP3 players. Second, if you are buying a PDA as a gift for someone else, be sure to develop a profile of the person's lifestyle and gadget history first. Does she already have a digital camera? Is her vision and hand coordination good enough that she won't mind pecking away on a diminutive keyboard? Will she consider using the provider a phone-enabled PDA's manufacturer insists on?

The worst of the confusion may end with the introduction of Palm's Handspring Treo 600. Peter Lewis analyzed the hot new device for Fortune.

Although it has a few glaring omissions -- it lacks a corkscrew and an airbag, for example -- Handspring's Treo 600 smart phone may be the finest color-screen wireless phone, e-mail, web-browsing, Palm PDA, MP3 music player, messaging, and digital-camera combination yet devised. It's due out later this month for somewhere over $500 from several carriers, including Cingular, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

Previous Treo models were essentially PDAs with a phone built in. The Treo 600 is the opposite, meaning that for one thing, users no longer look like Martians radioing back to the mother ship when making calls. At the same time, slenderizing the Treo has also shrunk the color display and the built-in keyboard, which is useful for dashing off e-mails and memos or entering contact and calendar information on the fly.

. . .Overall performance of everything from data applications to gaming has been speeded by the upgrade to a 144-megahertz Texas Instruments processor and 32 megabytes of system memory. There's a slot for SD cards, which can be stocked with MP3 music files, digital photos, video clips, or boring business-type stuff.

Lewis says all of this occurs without paying the price in battery life, which can be as high as five hours. He reports the Treo 600 is also operable with one hand, preventing the driving hazard the earlier models may have caused. Overall, he considers it "the smartest of the smart phones."

PDA Live and Business 2.0 second that. PDA Live extols the more phone-like features of this PDA-P.

The first thing you notice about the Treo 600 is how much more like a phone it looks and feels. The Treo 300 looks and feels more like a PDA (which I don't mind), but there was evidently an effort made to make the 600 more like a phone. There is no more "flip lid" to worry about. Rumor is that many folks had the lid break off of the Treo 300 so Handspring eliminated it. Gone also is the jog wheel. It is replaced by a 5 way toggle button located on the face of the device. The toggle controls the screen prompts and cursor in all 4 directions while pushing the center of the toggle activates a function the same as tapping the screen. This control makes the Treo 600 simple to use with one hand, just like a phone.

Business 2.0 declares the new hybrid not just an extremely well-designed product, but a possible profit maker for Palm.

With this week's debut of the Handspring Treo 600, Palm finally has a device to rival smartphones from the likes of Nokia and Motorola.

The timing of the launch is perfect. The Treo 600, an almost complete overhaul from earlier iterations, comes just as competition heats up in the world of smartphones. Consumers have shown an increasing reluctance to carry around both a phone and a PDA . As a result, sales of devices like the Treo that can serve multiple purposes have taken off. IDC estimates that more than 13 million converged devices will be sold this year -- a 260 percent increase over 2002 -- compared with just 11 million PDAs.

The Treo 600 may not quite be manna from heaven. It seems a bit too busy to me. Not everyone wants every possible usage in their PDA. But, because of its excellent integration of a phone and PDA, the new device does appear to a significant step in the needed convergence of features on PDAs-Plus.

Greatest novels list is right . . . and wrong

Several bloggers have posted a list of Modern Library's 100 Greatest English Language Novels of the 20th Century and their thoughts about it.

Here's the list:

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
13. 1984 by George Orwell
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
23. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
36. ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
52. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
57. PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE by John Cheever
64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72. A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86. RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
87. THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
89. LOVING by Henry Green
90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96. SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron .
97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99. THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

Note that the list is limited to one century and has some oddities. Many novels translated into English are more impressive, and more read, than those written in English. (The list violates its own prejudice at least once, by lising Vladimir Nabakov, who had a great deal of trouble writing in English, and seldom did.) In addition, there is apparent confusion in regard to genre, with two well-known science fiction authors, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell listed, but others omitted. Ditto for detective/mystery fiction. I also suspect the list is an intentional snub of minority and women writers because some white, male writers so obscure hardly anyone has heard of them are included while important writers such as Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison and Chinua Achebe are omitted. Still, most of the writers on the list deserve to be there.

I have read about 80 of the 100 books. Maybe I'll make a project of finishing the list. But, some of these books are not deserving of the honor, in my opinion. And, it is mainly those books I haven't read. Among the worthier novels I may pick up are D.H. Lawrence 's Sons & Lovers, which I have owned several times, but never read, and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, which I don't recall ever buying. I credit having wanted to be a novelist since I was nine years old with resulting in my head being full of literature. I think it rare that someone who is not a reader of literary fiction will be able to make his mark as a writer of it. However, a person need not have literary ambitions to enjoy one of the most available forms of entertainment and enlightenment.

In the news

There's nothing unusual about a celebrity being angry with the media, but Bob Geldof is tilting at a new windmill, instead of complaining about coverage of himself. He is upset with the publishers of magazines targeted at teenaged girls.

Yesterday, one parent, a father of three teenage children, hit back. And he is not just any parent. Bob Geldof, the rock star and charity hero, compared the publications to grown men who get sexual thrills from underage girls.

On a BBC2 programme, Grumpy Old Men, to be shown next week, Sir Bob asks: "Are they any less offensive than a 22-year-old man going to an 11- or 12-year-old girl and saying, 'I am going to talk to you about sex and how girls can give blow jobs to men?' If such a conversation happened, you would view it as odd, probably illegal and certainly predatory."

Sir Bob, father of Pixie, 13, Peaches, 15, and Fifi Trixibelle, 19, adds: "There is something predatory because they are made by adult men and women. Is it because of my age that makes me feel they are wrong? I don't think so. I would have objected to them when I was 20."

Sir Bob's anger centres on several magazines. Mizz, Bliss, J-17, Sugar and CosmoGirl! carry sex advice and sexually themed features for a readership with an average age of 15 or below....

Since I don't pay much attention to the ingenue media market and most of the rags cited are British, I can't pass personal judgment on them. However, as a graduate of Tiger Beat and other girl 'zines, I can testify to not having been harmed by the light sexual innuendo such mediums engage in. I doubt this generation will be, either, though the innuendo may be racier. Furthermore, most American girls have had sex by the time they are 15. I believe we would could use our energies more wisely in urging them not to be irresponsible in their sexual behavior.

The blogger at Playing With My Food has listed this news item under 'Humor,' but Sir Bob appears to serious.

By the way, who named Geldof's girls?

I wish the recall election in California had been postponed so we wouldn't have to discuss Arnold Schwarzenegger anymore. I am as weary of him as I am of George W. Bush. But, the beat goes on.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 -- With one week to go, California's recall election appears more and more to be a two-man race, with an unpopular governor struggling to hold on to Democrats, and a Hollywood actor who now has the Republican establishment behind him and a burst of momentum from the latest polls.

Though there are 135 names on the ballot, the final week is likely to be a showdown between embattled Gov. Gray Davis (D) and Republican frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger, strategists in the two campaigns said.

. . .Schwarzenegger received the unanimous endorsement today of the California Republican Party's board of directors, becoming the de facto nominee. He already had received the nod from most of the ranking Republicans in Sacramento and the Republican congressional delegation from California.

The California GOP is possibly the most disorganized in the country and dominated by Neanderthals. Its blessing doesn't mean much, particularly considering it had to contradict itself on most of its positions to get there.

George "Duf" Sundheim, chairman of the California GOP, said the decision to endorse Schwarzenegger, who backs abortion rights, gun control, medical marijuana and gay unions, has "strong support from the grass roots" because he is "the candidate who can win."

The sheep who were going to baa for Schwarzenegger would have regardlessly.

What I find troubling is the whole scenario. A C-movie actor with the intelligence of a pet rock announces he is running for the top leadership position in an important state and far too many of the citizenry cluelessly declare their allegiance. The national GOP targets a governor for a spurious recall campaign and far too few of the citizenry see what is wrong with that. We have a habit of blaming leaders for failures in our society. But, I'm inclined to blame the citizens of the not so golden state for this one.

Right Wing blogger Robert Garcia Tagorda, at Priorities and Frivolities, believes otherwise. He even thinks Scharzenegger is capable of winning a debate. I differ -- without begging.

Since becoming an independent writer, I pay a lot more attention to health insurance issues than I did while under the umbrellas of powerful employers. The New York Times reports that millions more Americans are having to go without coverage this year.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - The number of people without health insurance shot up last year by 2.4 million, the largest increase in a decade, raising the total to 43.6 million, as health costs soared and many workers lost coverage provided by employers, the Census Bureau reported today.

The increase brought the proportion of people who were uninsured to 15.2 percent, from 14.6 percent in 2001. The figure remained lower than the recent peak of 16.3 percent in 1998.

A continued erosion of employer-sponsored coverage was the main reason for the latest increase, the bureau said. Public programs, especially Medicaid, covered more people and cushioned the loss of employer-sponsored health insurance but "not enough to offset the decline in private coverage," the report said.

The proportion of Americans with insurance from employers declined to 61.3 percent, from 62.6 percent in 2001 and 63.6 percent in 2000. The number of people with employer-sponsored coverage fell last year by 1.3 million, to 175.3 million, even as the total population grew by 3.9 million.

There is no relief in sight. Lobbyists are focusing their energies on providing prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients, who are already insured. Nor will better economic fortunes bail most of the uninsured out. Unemployment and underemployment are rampant in some states, including here in the Pacific Northwest. The same report says the rate of poverty increased last year. However, the low-income are not the only people effected.

Among people living in poverty, 49 percent of those who worked full-time were uninsured.

But middle-income households accounted for most of the increase in the number of uninsured. In households with annual incomes of $25,000 to $74,999, the number of uninsured people rose last year by 1.4 million, to 21.5 million, and the increase was most noticeable among households with incomes of $25,000 to $49,999.

If there is a single national issue I am willing to declare a priority over others, it is basic healthcare coverage for everyone. I believe all other forms of well-being start with health. Yes, I know many liberals and moderates gave up on the issue of national health insurance after Hillary Clinton's resounding defeat when she attempted to make headway on it. However, in my opinion, the issue should be resurrected and made part of Democratic candidates' plans for the coming national elections.

Tech Talk

Yahoo has beaten Microsoft out of the starting gate with an innovation to Web searching. Its new search engine will focus on locating products specifically. Currently, a search for a product on any search engine is likely to bring up allusions to anything having to do with the name of the product, wasting the searcher's time.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O), broadening its efforts in the red-hot search services market, on Tuesday rolled out a new search platform that lets users find products, compare prices and buy from different merchants.

``(Search is) becoming the most efficient way for consumers to find products,'' said Rob Solomon, the general manager of Yahoo Shopping.

Product search is an increasingly competitive market on the Internet, with engines like MySimon and PriceGrabber vying to be the launch point for consumer purchases, generating revenue through commissions or other fees when users click one of their links to buy from a retailer.

. . .The new products search is directly integrated into Yahoo's main search engine and features a full range of products from across the Internet, from computers to camping gear, with search results sorted by relevance.

The ability to do streamlined product searches is a result of Yahoo's purchase of Inktomi and integration of its algorithms. The advertising component, which results in targeted ads, is handled by Overture, which Yahoo is in the process of buying.

Still, analysts are watching Microsoft closely. It is acknowledging plans to revamp and improve MSN Search.

Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) control over nearly everyone's Internet experiences may get even more comprehensive when plans to develop its own Web browser come to fruition.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant has acknowledged that it is determined to create its own search technology, a move that suggests there soon could be a major shakeup of the booming search-engine market. The revelation also may provide some clues to Microsoft's nascent next-generation platforms, meaning it is likely search capability will be a major feature of the company's yet more-integrated upcoming products.

"We are aware that there is a huge opportunity industry-wide to raise the bar with regards to relevancy of search queries, and our investment and commitment with MSN Search is to take that challenge head on," Microsoft spokesperson Amy Petty told NewsFactor.

The software colossus is expected to debut its own independent search engine as a product integrated with the new Windows operating system, due in 2005.

Microsoft also has competition in the still largely unplumbed field of handwriting recognition. Pen & Internet, which has sometimes done business with Microsoft, has moved ahead in developing pen computing.

The company has two main products. The first, riteMail, is a software-service combo that supports pen communications on a variety of platforms. As the name implies, it'll let you send handwritten messages to friends, which can be viewed in pretty much any e-mail client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Lotus Notes, Netscape Mail, as well as Web-based e-mail systems such as AOL Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and others). It can also be used as a straight note-taking app. And a desktop component will attempt to turn your scrawl into text.

RiteMail can be used on any Windows computer; there are also riteMail clients for both Palm and Pocket PC operating systems, as well as a Java-based edition that allows messages to be sent from any Java-enabled browser.

If you're using it on a PC, you'll obviously need some sort of input device. RiteMail supports all the usual suspects, such as Wacom tablets and pen-sensitive screens. The company also has a deal with Fingersystem USA to offer its ritePen software with Fingersystem's i-pen Mouse, a USB pen that doubles as a mouse.

. . .Pen & Internet's second app, ritePen, is a handwriting recognition and pen utility software package that can run on any Windows machine or replace the Tablet PC's recognizer. The company claims its recognizer works better than Microsoft's (which is built atop older Pen & Internet technology). That claim seems reasonable enough. Since the ritePen software sells for $19.95, the risk isn't too great if you don't like it.

David Coursey, writing for ZDNet's Anchordesk, gives both programs good reviews, with a caveat. He believes he, an awkward left-hander, may not be the best person to judge Pen & Internet's applications. Coursey further notes the apps are not really the focus of the company. Marketing its research and development is.

Also, as I said previously, Pen & Internet is more a technology company than a product company. These products are showcases for what the company would like to license to hardware and software companies as well as to wireless service providers worldwide.

Coursey recommends a visit to P & I's website for techies wondering what the future of input devices will be.

The product to compare the i-Pen to is Logitech's io Personal Digital Pen.

If you were a celebrity, what household name corporation would you lend your grandeur to? According to trend watchers, many young people would choose Apple. It has become the corp of choice for the youth market, people 13 to 34 or so, because it is cool.

. . .Asked recently what company they would most like to endorse (if they were a celebrity), the correspondents nominated Apple the most popular choice, followed by Coca-Cola, Levi's and Nike.

Look-Look also asked its network about "cool new gadgets." Picture-taking cell phones topped the list, followed by the iPod and Sony's PlayStation. But when it came to "extremely well-designed products," Apple's iMac and iPod were voted No. 1.

This fall, the iPod is the No. 2 "must have" item for the back-to-school season, right after new shoes, according to Look-Look's August youth culture newsletter. A new computer or laptop comes third on the list, specifically an iMac or PowerMac G5.

Shoes and then an iPod? Is this a nation of privilege or what?

In addition to Look-Look, market researchers L Style Report and Youth Intelligence cite Apple as one of the most cool of nationally known companies.

Entertainment: Aretha's new release reaps mixed reviews

Aretha Franklin has released a new CD, So Damn Happy. Some trendsetters, including Rolling Stone's Barry Walters, say though listenable, this production pales in comparison to 1988's hip hop influenced effort.

The queen of soul is still the Queen. But that doesn't mean the material on Aretha Franklin's latest album is deserving of her crown. Last time around, on 1998's A Rose Is Still a Rose, Lauryn Hill, Puff Daddy and other hot hitmakers plied fresh beats and old-school samples to aim Aretha's R&B at young ears. Here, Mary J. Blige appears on and co-writes two of the hipper tracks, "Holdin' On" and "No Matter What," but both come up short in the melody, hook and rhythm departments, and those deficits afflict much of the rest. Ten different producers replace Rose's hip-hop energy with an adult-contemporary slickness that sometimes makes the sixty-one-year-old legend's voice seem shrill. Her Highness deserves more r-e-s-p-e-c-t than this.

Walters gave the album only two stars.

Jon Pareles of the New York Times amplifies Walter's criticism in a review of a recent concert in which Franklin reprised some of the songs that made her deservedly famous.

Aretha Franklin works by her own regal whims. On Saturday night at Radio City Music Hall, she operated in a realm far removed from most performers' attempts to please a crowd: a realm of long memory, odd caprices and ambivalence about the confines of pop. Listeners are welcome to admire the way her voice dives into sultriness, dodges the beat, cascades through long melismas or rushes heavenward. But where most soul and rhythm-and-blues turns listeners into a congregation, Ms. Franklin leaves them on the sidelines as spectators.

. . .The Baptist church music that Ms. Franklin grew up singing is never far from her best performances. She sat down at the piano to splash gospel tremolos in the title song of her new album, "So Damn Happy" (Arista), and in a version of "Dr. Feelgood" that was pure gospel music with earthy lyrics. She was joined by the Rev. Michael Jemison for the hymn "Precious Memories," and sang rings around him. Soon afterward, she topped "Freeway of Love" with a gospel reprise, shouting, "Jesus!"

It wouldn't be an Aretha show without peculiar moments. She suddenly demanded a handkerchief from her band, complained that Barbra Streisand would already have a handkerchief at hand and tossed away a proffered face cloth. She noted problems with the sound system by saying she hadn't attended the afternoon rehearsal. She took a mid-set break while her (unnecessary) dancers did a number to a recording of Nelly's "Hot in Herre," not a favorite of her graying audience. But when Ms. Franklin sang, she earned every whim.

I believe Pareles gets very close to why Franklin isn't embraced as fully as she should be when he alludes to the way she can distance herself from people. It is a theme one sees in her life off-stage as well as on. The distancing appears to have begun after the violent assault on her beloved father in 1979 and his subsequent years as an invalid Franklin helped care for. Experiencing traumatic events can lead to hyper-vigilance and distrust of people. However, I could be wrong about causality. Her sister, Carolyn, says what people often interpret as standoffishness by Franklin is actually shyness. The impact of the insularity has sometimes been seen in legal troubles for the Queen. A continual problem has been neglect of her properties in Detroit and failure to pay taxes on them -- something that could be easily solved if she paid more attention to her mail and delegated a trusted person to manage her real estate.

Not all reviewers are dissin' Franklin. Josh Tyrangiel of Time is enthralled.

With just one song, "Respect," Franklin introduced feminism to popular music, but she has also sung about lesser things convincingly -- like riding on a freeway of love in a pink Cadillac -- and being drawn through destiny to duet partner George Michael. She can basically do anything, and So Damn Happy, Franklin's first album in five years, proves the point again. So Damn Happy doesn't have a single great song, and it doesn't matter.

Most of the album is structured to let Franklin do her trademark thing: sing about making it through heartache with her faith intact. The Queen of Soul never really did melody: like an expert surgeon who leaves the nurses to stitch up, it's a little beneath her. Instead she rises and plunges over songs like "The Only Thing Missin'" and "Ain't No Way." It's a style the Mariah Careys of the world have copied and perverted into a circus act, but Franklin actually invests her rumbles and squeaks with authentic emotion.

The production on So Damn Happy is modern, minimalist and first-rate. Franklin has always had a great ear for contemporary music, which is why she has appeared in the Top 10 recently and James Brown hasn't. She gets Mary J. Blige to contribute some fine backing vocals and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to offer up a nice song and -- presto! -- Aretha is radio-ready. It doesn't take much to make the timeless timely.

If you have seen the gorgeous cover photo for So Damn Happy, you may have exclaimed, "Bravo! She lost the weight!" as I did. For several years, Franklin's petite frame has carried enough pounds to make her morbidly obese, threatening her life. Those of us who care about her wish she would lose enough weight to reduce the risk to her health. Furthermore, she is a very attractive woman when thin or buxom. Unfortunately, it tain't so. The cover photo is the product of digital wizardry, not successful dieting.

I'm willing to drop the dough for the Queen's latest, regardless of Rolling Stone's two-star rating. In these times of paid and boosted MP3 downloads, we may be forgetting that it used to be common for listeners to buy albums knowing they were imperfect. The songs that soared were adequate justification, and, one could learn much about what works musically and what doesn't from the selections that didn't quite make it. That standard is one I'm comfortable with.

Blogospherics: Race, partisanship and the blogosphere

Greg at Begging to Differ drew my attention to a discussion of 'identity politics' started by Michael Bowen of Cobb the Blog.

What does it mean to be a black blogger?

I'll start with the number of black blogs I have on my blogroll. There is a discernable disproportion of black bloggers on my blogroll to the percentage of blacks in America and presumeably the blogosphere. That's 15.2% for me.

As far as I know, I am the only Republican black blogger and everybody who carries at least one link to a visibly black blogger goes after Oliver Willis (who needs no introduction or links from me). So the simple answer to the simple question is, you get more recognition from other black bloggers than from non-black bloggers, unless you are Oliver Willis. Since Willis is clearly a big liberal wonk there's a similar deal with liberal blogger recognition vs non-liberal recognition. What's it like to live in the shadow of Oliver Willis? I don't know because I don't read his blog.

There is a deeper question implied by the black blogger question. But that devolves back to the simple question: What does it mean to be black and stand up and say what you believe? I'll get to that after I dispatch with a few other things.

. . .Certainly, none of us wants to be pigeon-holed and would prefer to think of themselves as free thinking individuals who approach each issue rationally. Fine.

But our system of democracy depends upon partisanship and defining the boundaries of left and right. To an extent, the same can be said about race. (And here, I'm straying into an area where I don't have a lot of depth.) Certainly, we are each defined by our racial (and ethnic, religious, etc.) backgrounds, though the effects are differing and complex. Colorblindness, like the presumption of innocence, is a useful legal fiction and a laudable ideal, but it's not really a way of life.

I believe that recognizing distinctions, both political and racial, ought to be a constructive part of political and social dialogue. Instead "race" and "partisanship" are often presented as derogatory concepts that ought to be shunned. And I think that's a shame.

I think something more complex and nefarious than mere 'shunning' of discussion of race is going on in Bloggersville. Three facts of life in the blogosphere shed light on what is occurring.

Several white self-declared 'leaders' of the liberal blogosphere have set themselves up as policemen of minority bloggers. They have declared whatever they say about race is received wisdom and that minority bloggers who don't agree with them are to be ostracized or abused. It is not clear to me how or why they would be the arbiters of racism, something they don't experience and the folks they are telling to shut up do. However, many people don't stop to ask such questions. They just do what they're told. In fact, among some liberals, one can almost hear a sigh of relief when the likes of Lisa English or Jim Rittenhouse gives them their marching orders. Now, they know what to say and do. If lack of a spine was a crime, they would all be locked up. Cobb asked: What does it mean to be black and stand up and say what you believe? In the blogosphere, it can mean having to withstand the puerile assaults of people like these.

On the conservative side of the blogosphere, there is little pretense at any enlightenment in regard to racial matters. Large blogs such as Cold Fury and Silflay Hraka regularly post material that reads as if it issued from a time warp in the 1950s. Hardly anyone dares to disagree with support for neo-Confederates or efforts to cleanse the Ku Klux Klan's reputation. I don't know whether that response is because of genuine agreement with the sentiments expressed or because there are also enforcers of a line to take on race in the Right blogosphere. Both, perhaps.

Greg's perspective, though mainly accurate, misses a movement toward centralism in the blogosphere. It is championed by longterm Mac-a-ro-nies ally Rick Heller of Smart Genes, among others. The centrists attempt to chart a course between liberal and conservative orthodoxy. The result is a mixture of opinion that can be characterized as liberal, moderate, conservative or progressive at different times. Among the topics treated thus is racism. For example, Heller recently supported David Horowitz in a dispute with the Southern Poverty Law Center. I consider Horowitz to be a contributor to bigotry, at the very least. However, Heller is usually on the side of the angels when it comes to racial discrimination, unlike the hypocrites of the liberal blogosphere, who are part of the problem, not ameliorators of it. And, he is honest enough to clearly state his positions and how he arrives at them.

In summary, race is a topic that reveals Bloggersville at it worst. The liberals are far too much under the thumbs of a few white 'leaders' with rather obvious personal problems with racism themselves. The conservatives largely ignore the multi-racial reality of 2003, preferring to dwell in a world of white hegemony, circa 1950 or so. The only ray of hope appears to be the centrists, who can at least be counted on to bring ideas to discussions of racism that are not pre-packaged and pre-approved.

Note: No, I am not finished with the Portland Seven . . . Six . . . Five . . . Four. I am discussing the case(s) with some people who know more about the inside story. An update will appear as soon as I've absorbed the new information.