Author Archive

Drive by Truckers – The Three Great Alabama Icons

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

“Such is the duality of the Southern thing”. I love that line from this song. Or poem. Or is it spoken word? Whatever it is, it’s brilliant. Live version of The Three Great Alabama Icons. This song is about racism, misunderstood meanings of what being Southern was about and a history of Southern men. like Alabama Governor George Wallance who would do anything for a vote. I was reminded of this song by a comment from Cian over on IrishElection on why Irish voters re-elect controversy soaked politicians.

This is just a small capture of the whole song:

Which leads us to George Wallace…Now Wallace was for all practical purposes the Governor of Alabama from 1962 until 1986… Once, when a law prevented him from succeeding himself he ran his wife Lerline in his place and she won by a landslide… He’s most famous as the belligerent racist voice of the segregationist South… Standing in the doorways of schools and waging a political war against a Federal Government that he decried as hypocritical…

And Wallace had started out as a lawyer and a judge with a very progressive and humanitarian track record for a man of his time. But he lost his first bid for governor in 1958 by hedging on the race issue, against a man who spoke out against integration…Wallace ran again in ’62 as a staunch segregationist and won big, and for the next decade spoke out loudly… He accused Kennedy and King of being communists.He was constantly on national news, representing the “good? people of Alabama…And you know race was only an issue on TV in the house that I grew up in…Wallace was viewed as a man from another time and place…

And when I first ventured out of theSouth, I was shocked at how strongly Wallace was associated with Alabama and its people… Ya know racism is a worldwide problem and it’s been since the beginning of recorded history… and it ain’t just white and black… But thanks to George Wallace, it’s always a little more convenient to play it with a Southern accent.

And bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd attempted to show another side of the South… One that certainly exists, but few saw beyond the rebel flag… And this applies not only to their critics and detractors, but also from their fans and followers. So for a while, when Neil Young would come to town, he’d get death-threats down in Alabama…

Ironically, in 1971, after a particularly racially charged campaign, Wallace began backpedaling, and he opened up Alabama politics to minorities at a rate faster than most Northern states or the Federal Government. And Wallace spent the rest of his life trying to explain away his racist past, and in 1982 won his last term in office with over 90% of the black vote… Such is the Duality of the Southern Thing…

And George Wallace died back in ’98 and he’s in Hell now, not because he’s a racist… His track record as a judge and his late-life quest for redemption make a good argument for his being, at worst, no worse than most white men of his generation, North or South…But because of his blind ambition and his hunger for votes, he turned a blind eye to the suffering of Black America. And he became a pawn in the fight against the Civil Rights cause…Fortunately for him, the Devil is also a Southerner

ShareIT Followup – Thanks to all the speakers

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

Thank you to Jenny, Conor, Krishna, Laurence, Donagh and Richard for fantastic talk at the inaugural ShareIT event in Cork. Walter was unable to do his talk this time, but perhaps at the next Cork event? 🙂 There wasn’t a huge turnout, unfortunately, but I hope it was of value to everyone. I certainly learned a hell of a lot and had one or two of my views changed. Great thanks especially to Krishna, Laurence and Richard who came from Dublin for the day and did it all out of their own pockets. I’ll link to all the presentations in the next while. Also thanks to Diarmuid and Kris in the UCC SU for organising the venue.

The next event will take place at the Microsoft offices in Dublin on April 28th. Thanks for Clare Dillon for organising the room. Details of speakers/talks to follow.

Googling “Next Steps Fianna Fail” gets you…

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

A blog post entitled “Brian Greene » Fianna Fail Drunk Driver TDs step aside“. Someone should have hired an Irish search engine optimisation expert before launching the website.

Edit: YouTube too. Tags tags tags. Right now my Naruto mashup video shows up for a search for “the next steps fianna fail” and nothing from Fianna Fail. Sheesh.

The Next Steps – Fianna Fail

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

The Next Steps website. Great to see the parties create websites and YouTube videos. The new over-slick videos from Fianna Fail will not work though. Guys, address the camera, address the user. YouTube viewers want to be addressed in a personal manner and honestly, do all your candidates have to point out you have a wife, 2.3 kids and a dog named sparky. Us web people don’t care about that. We read Twenty Major, do we really care about your wholesome family image?

Thems apples – 25 Euros ex vat .ie domains

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

How’s them for apples?

ShareIT – Moved to Civ Eng Building in UCC

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Smaller, cosier venue. Do come along! Planning for ShareIT Dublin on April 28th has now started.

Link love – March 23rd 2007

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Tims Times reaches the parts other blogs never reach. You know the parts I mean. Oh actually you don’t, you sick puppy. I meant in the niche market area that blogs are great for. Tim Ruttledge’s blog on all thing maritime is great though. Feedburner feed. Flickr profile.

Damien Blake. Do not call him “the Blakester”. He doesn’t like that. He won’t give you a lift in one of his 8 different sports cars. In unrelated news Damien is a politician with the peoples party – Fianna Fail. Feedburner feed. Twitter profile.

Kevin Peyton’s Health Tech Blog. Unlike Biotech health blogs that talk about making creatures made from men and leopards and trout, this is devoted strictly to tech and health. He has very interesting views on how the bionic woman makes a better superhero than Wonder Woman. That right Kevin?

Then there’s Kav. He’s like the male version of a female Kav. He is not of this country anymore. No I don’t mean he’s dead. He lives in Scotland or if you want to annoy a Scot, called it Northern England. Kav is sound. Feedburner feed.

Fluffy Links – March 23rd 2007

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

ShareIT is on tomorrow. I am not shutting down any PC! There’s lots of space still and it now starts at 10am. Do come along if you have time.

Car sharing in Cork. Give feedback?

Now that’s a touchscreen.

Downloadmusic.ie got a nice online music player. Check it out.

The guy that did the pro-Obama, anti-Hilary video has resigned from his job.

CSS are playing Cork. They’re a band. Pah, nerds!

McDowell loves his press releases.

So NewsCorp and NBC are building a YouTube competitor but have yet to give it a name. So Google did and called it Clown Co. It may just stick.

Dave Winer is now keynoting at the Flattening of Politics conference in New York in May. As of last night I was going. As of this morning I am not as while I was comfortable skipping one college exam to go, I now realise I would have to skip two. Can’t afford to do that. I really think an Irish representative should go to this and I’m willing to start a fund to get someone to go.

Any update on Educamp Ireland? I’m considering doing another *camp but about activism.

If you want to have a cool brand, you have to do cool shit. Amen brother.

Delicious is his Twitter. Apparently.

Link love – March 22nd 2007

Thursday, March 22nd, 2007

There once was a man from Venus. Then he moved to Nantucket. Or was it Scunthorpe? Or maybe Nobber in whatever county that place is in. Anthony‘s blog is not based there.

If the Robots win we’ll have to listen to techno. Niall O’Keeffe will not allow this. He has even invested heavily in spandex gear to prevent this horrible awful future. Support Niall’s plan to stop robots like 6 from Battlestar luring innocent men into having the time of their lives.

Staying on the robot theme. Do androids really dream of electric sheep? Robert Synnott hasn’t answered. The shit. I mean they even turned the question into a book to get more attention so he’d have to answer. Stubborn isn’t he? He should, dontcha think? Join me and sign the petition. Feedburner feed. Delicious profile. Twitter profile.

Grandad makes me feel uncomfortable. He’s doing the opposite of Google really. Google don’t want you to say “I Googled for that” whereas this guy is reclaiming the generic word, the same way the gayers have reclaimed the word “homosexual” and made it sound all descriptive instead of the old version which meant happy and nice.

Fluffy Links – March 22nd 2007

Thursday, March 22nd, 2007

Yay, Twenty. Stay tuned to see more media deals being done with bloggers this year.

Ok, maybe it’s me, but I thought this piece on the Limerick Blogger was a piss-take. Who names a kid “Robin Money”, isn’t that a whacky DJ name, like Robin Banks?

Spaces available still at ShareIT Cork. All bloggers welcome!

Harry Potter leaves Bloggorah. Best of luck Larry!