Study: Americans' social contacts slipping (AP)

This made me sad. Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociology professor at the Durham Country Club is one of the authors of the study.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Nearly one in every four Americans has no close confidant, according to a study that found that the average person's circle of close friends has shrunk considerably in the last two decades.

[...]

Possible causes of the shrinking circle of close contacts include an increase in work hours and the influence of Internet communication, the authors said.

The study is based on face-to-face interviews of 1,467 people conducted in 2004, compared with a similar number of interviews conducted in 1985.

Those interviewed in 1985 had an average of almost three confidants they felt they could share important matters with. By 2004 the average was barely two.

The Left and the Blathersphere (Alexander Cockburn)

In political terms the blogosphere is like white noise, insistent and meaningless, like the wash of Pacific surf I can hear most days. But MoveOn.Org and Daily Kos have been hailed as the emergent form of modern politics, the target of excited articles in the New York Review of Books.

Beyond raising money swiftly handed over to the gratified veterans of the election industry both MoveOn and Daily Kos have had zero political effect, except as a demobilizing force.

The effect on writers is horrifying. Talented people feel they have produce 400 words of commentary every day and you can see the lethal consequences on their minds and style, both of which turn rapidly to slush. They glance at the New York Times and rush to their laptops to rewrite what they just read. Hawsers to reality soon fray and they float off , drifting zeppelins of inanity.

piece on Whole Foods

Whole Foods CEO Mackey Endorses Cato Book – No More Corporate Crime Prosecutions:

Most people who shop at Whole Foods are liberal yuppies.

They have enough money to spend $9 on a pound of cherries.

They believe that shopping for groceries at Whole Foods instead of Safeway or Food Lion or Giant or Wal-Mart is the politically correct thing to do.

They probably believe that the President and CEO of Whole Foods is a liberal like themselves.

They of course would be wrong.

John Mackey is instead a libertarian with right-wing tendencies.

Mackey says that Milton Friedman is his hero.

He’s a devotee of Ayn Rand.

He’s opposed to national health insurance.

He’s a union buster.

And he has recently endorsed a book published by the libertarian Cato Institute whose author concludes that no corporation should ever be prosecuted for crimes – no matter the corporation, no matter the crime.

The decades fly by

Twenty years ago (give or take a few weeks) my mom, my dad and Annnie were driving the Alcan from Berkeley, CA to Chugkiak, AK. We went to the '86 World's Fair in BC on the way there.

About ten years ago I was moving to Whitefish, MT with my mom and stepfather. Half way through high school is a hard time to move, but some good came of it.

The summer has often been a time of moving for me: '86, '92, '96, '98, '99, '02, '03, '05...

Stephan's latest stuff

A new article in The Progressive. A good piece on politics and music:
Why Neil Young Is Wrong

(He didn't pick the title).

I've been helping him out by creating his new Myspace page, which has four free songs:

www.myspace.com/stephansmith

Colbert interview about food

With Michael Pollan, author of the Ominvore's Dilemma. Very good (but then again it's the topic to which I'll be devoting years of my life...). I plan to buy and read.

He talked about how too much of what we eat comes from corn and was immediately followed by a commerical for Doritos.

Russell's Attempt at a Cheesy Comic

My mom just got a new MacBook and I've been setting it up for her. It came with an application called Comic Life that let's you make comics out of pictures. I threw this one together for fun. I hope you like it. I used her built in iSight to take the pics (except for the one of Natalie Portman, naturally).

No More AOL cds

Talk about a good cause...

We represent all who are sick of receiving unwanted AOL cds...Once we have 1,000,000 collected, we will make our quest across America to give them all back to their rightful owner, AOL and say "stop doing this". Don't throw them away or get mad, send'em to us and we'll all end this wasteful practice while sharing a laugh or two.

Apple - Get a Mac - Watch The TV Ads

Since I don't watch TV much I just now saw them for the first time online. Funny stuff.