Space Blog, Progressive Patriotism, and Fever

The blog from space…literally. And lots more, too, including some very cool vids. The meat of the blog is in the archives, which detail (and lo, the details!) the preparation and training prior to launch. There are no postings from space, yet.

Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft software architect and current billionaire, is now the fifth civilian ever to be rocketed into space. (He's on his way to the International Space Station onboard a Soyuz spacecraft that took off from Kazakhstan on Saturday.)

This is what a spectacularly successful career in the IT industry (Xerox PARC and Microsoft) will get you. Well, that and 25 million Yankee Dollars…

Just about the coolest site I’ve seen recently, suitable for kids of all ages! (That’s a hint to SN1 & SN2.)

Chris Bowers writes an interesting essay on progressives and patriotism at MyDD. Excerpts:

Allegiance to a fixed cultural identity is fundamentally at odds with a progressive worldview. Over the past two years, I have written about this at great length in articles such as Maybe It Is A Battle Of Civilizations, Try Something New, and The End of the 1960's? Differing concepts of the value of identity form one of the core differences between progressivism and conservatism: pluralism vs. cultural supremacy, and fluid identity vs. fixed identity. Since progressivism highly values both pluralism and fluid identity, the long-standing, dominant use of the term "patriotism" described in the paragraph above clearly becomes a difficult term with which ideological progressives can self-identify. How is it possible for someone to value both pluralism and fluid identity while simultaneously self-identifying allegiance to a fixed, idealized--even absolutist--cultural identity? That is not very easy, and does not come without a lot of internal tension and self-contradiction.

[…]

In fact, America was founded on exactly the opposite principles: no national religion, no national language, no national media, no national ethnic identity, welcoming borders, and freedom from being forced to cohere with larger cultural norms. We even fought a civil war over this idea, and pluralism won out. (Can the civil war be accurately described as a fight for the cultural distinctness and superiority of, and resulting need of independent sovereignty for, nineteenth century southern white culture from the rest of America? I think it can.) American patriotism is thus the opposite of patriotism in many other countries, and thus in no way causes a self-identification contradiction for progressives. Theocons and anti-immigration cultural supremacists will of course disagree, which is why they regularly argue for things like America being a Christian nation, for keeping brown people out of the country, for mandating prayer in public schools, or making English the official national language. They believe in, and want everyone to cohere with, a discrete and distinct cultural identity for America. Quite frankly, I can hardly think of anything less American and, within an American context, less patriotic than all of that.

I’m no theocon (defined here) and I’m not an “anti-immigration cultural supremacist.” Yet I disagree, especially with Bowers’ allegations that us cultural supremacists (I do admit to being one of those, without the anti-immigration modifier) want to “keep brown people out of the country” and “mandate prayer in public schools.” BS—pure and simple. Allowing prayer is different than mandating it, Mr. Bowers. Prohibiting prayer in schools is the de facto law of the land these days, and is that somehow “better” than allowing prayer? I don’t know of a single conservative—not one—who wants to keep “brown people” out of the country. I know a lot of people, on the other hand, who simply want our existing immigration laws enforced…equally and fairly. And, making English our official national language ain’t such a bad idea. It’s the key to assimilation, and I was always taught (and thus believe) assimilation is what makes America The Great Melting Pot, and it’s the key factor in making our diverse culture work.

On the other hand, Mr. Bowers goes on a great deal about pluralism, about which The Wiki has this to say:

Pluralism is, in the general sense, the affirmation and acceptance of diversity. The concept is used, often in different ways, in a wide range of issues. In politics, the affirmation of diversity in the interests and beliefs of the citizenry, and so political pluralism is one of the most important features of modern democracy. (emphasis in the original)

I don’t disagree with The Wiki, and I’m wholly in favor of pluralism, as described above. I do, however, disagree strongly when pluralism morphs into identity politics, which appears to be the ultimate outcome of the whole diversity “thing” we’ve experienced over the last two decades or so. The key is in knowing when to stop. And that is precisely the point where most liberals fall down. They don’t know when to stop, thus the transformation of pluralism into identity politics which is most often based on rejecting America’s “mainstream culture,” rather than accepting it. It’s pretty damned hard to be patriotic when you don’t like America, isn’t it?

On the whole, Bowers writes an interesting essay even if he lets his dislike of conservatives, and his hyperbolic, misinformed attacks on same get in the way. I’m glad Mr. Bowers considers himself patriotic, and I’m most certainly glad he loves our country. Mr. Bowers is very, very big on this pluralism thing (follow the three links in the excerpt posted above and you’ll see). And that’s all well and good, assuming he considers conservatives to be part of that plurality. I’m not sure he does.

The pressure…the PRESSURE! It’s getting out of hand. SN2 is putting the ol’ RD back on the road (as noted elsewhere on the blog) and is running me HARD about buying another bike. Then I learn that SN1, with d-i-l Erma egging him on, is actively bike shopping. Lou’s partner in crime just bought a Kwacker…pic here. What’s a guy to do?

Well, for starters, I just might go over to The Big(ger) City^TM today and check out one of these:

A Suzuki DL-650 V-Strom. Dual-purpose. Fast fire-roader. Competent street bike. Fever.

Sheesh. I thought I’d outgrown this sh!t.

The weather ain’t cooperating, either. It’s supposed to be 70 today, although we got off to a chilly start. With fog, believe it or don’t. I’m oh-so-ready to get back to “normal,” whatever that might be, in addition to WARM. Coz it sucks to ride in the cold, yanno?