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	November 26, 2003

TEN THINGS Ten Things I Love About Americans They're doers. When they've decided to do something, they do it. No pissing around. No foot-dragging. They're honest. Straight goods. Face value. They're friendly. They talk to strangers, and love to help. They're risk-takers. No guts, no glory. They're generous. They lend a hand, and they give a damn. They're open-minded. They embrace new ideas. Only in America could a book called 'If it ain't broke, break it' become a best-seller. They're casual. Comfort trumps style. No pomposity, no obsession with image. No BCBG for them. They're ambitious. They want to succeed, to make the world better. They're idealistic. They think anything is possible. So it is. They're responsible. They accept what they've done, for better and for worse. They're full of pride and shame, and rarely blame others. Ten Things I Hate About Bush He's dishonest. Bare-faced liar and seemingly proud of it. Goes with #10. He's ignorant. Can't believe he went to Yale. Doesn't understand history, culture, science or human nature. He's inarticulate, to the point of incoherence. The guy with the finger on the button can't utter a complete, clear English sentence. Very dangerous situation. He's a coward. Won't talk to people who disagree with him. Hides from news he doesn't like. Can't or won't debate. He's uncompromising and fixed in his thinking. Worse, he thinks that's a good thing. He's emotionally troubled. Look at his eyes. Watch the smirk when the stress is highest. Vonnegut was right. He's a cauldron always on the edge of boiling over. Or blowing up. Scary in a president. He's intemperate. He gets angry easily and holds long, irrational grudges, even according to his admirers. He's ambitious. Yes, the same quality I love in Americans I hate in Bush. Partly because extreme power and extreme ambition are a deadly mix. Partly because Bush's ambition is ruthless. He's insensitive. He is surely aware of the massive suffering and damage his actions have caused worldwide, but he clearly doesn't care; he can justify it in his own mind as a necessary consequence of his inviolable principles, ideology, dogma. He believes the end justifies the means. As did all the worst tyrants in history. Some caveats on the above lists: I'm Canadian, and many of the things on the left-hand list are virtues to most Canadians. In some other countries they're not considered virtues at all. The left-hand list is full of generalizations and there are, of course, many and highly-notable exceptions. Because they're so open, Americans are also easily manipulated and prone to irrational enthusiasms and unfair, even dangerous, over-reactions, so some of these lovable qualities are double-edged. I find Americans fun-loving, and their best scientists and best artists are almost without peer, but I wasn't sure how these attributes fit on the list. Besides, I had to limit it to 10. The rule of lists, you know. Photo: Ruth Fremson/NYT taken at Walter Reed Army Medical Center 2:28:26 PM  trackback []  comment []

UNDERSTANDING TRACKBACK AND COMMENT NOTIFICATION I've read a half dozen "layman's" explanations of trackback, and I confess I still didn't really understand it until yesterday. I also somehow thought it was connected to comment notification, which it isn't. For those as befuddled as I was, here's my attempt to explain it. If this just confuses you further, I apologize in advance. Trackback simply lets another site know that you have a post referring to it on your own site. Read the previous sentence until it makes sense. Sometimes when you're reading someone's blog you want to comment directly on their site. But sometimes you want to pursue the discussion on your own site. If so, and provided the other site has trackback enabled (i.e. the word 'trackback' appears below each post, as illustrated above) this is what you do (Movable Type users, I'm told, must use this 'bookmarklet' process instead of OPTION A): OPTION A: If you want to include a link to the other post in your article: Go to the other site, click on the word 'permalink' under that post and copy the other post's 'permalink URL', then draft your article, inserting a link to the other site with the permalink URL you copied      - OR - OPTION B: If you don't want to include a link to the other post in your article: Go to the other site, click on the word 'trackback' under that post and copy the 'trackback URL' that pops up, then draft your article and paste the 'trackback URL' in the edit space called 'URLs to Ping' Now when you post your article, the number in brackets beside the word 'trackback' below the post on the other site you referred to will increase by one, and when someone clicks on the word 'trackback' on the other site they'll see en extract from, and link to, your referring article. In other words, you've established a 2-way link between your article and the post on the other site. To allow others to trackback to your site, you need to 'enable' trackback. The process to enable trackback on your site depends what blogging tool you use. For Radio users the enabling process (you just have to do it once) is here. What the bulleted instructions above describe is called an 'outbound trackback'. From the perspective of the owner of the other site it's an 'inbound trackback' to them. Once you're enabled, you can practice on this post if you like. If you do, I'll reciprocate when I see your trackback by posting a trackback to one of your articles, so you can see how it works the other way. It all makes more sense when you've done it once or twice. The only drawback is that, having given your readers a third way to respond to your articles (besides comments and e-mail), now you have to check out your inbound trackbacks as well, to get the complete picture of what people thought of your article. As for comment notification, it's just an e-mail sent to your inbox each time someone posts a comment on (or trackback to) one of your blog posts. This is available so you don't have to scour back through comments threads on your old posts to see if there are any new comments. The process to enable this also depends on which blogging tool you use. For Radio users the enabling process (you just have to do it once) is here. Postscript: Tests for readers pinging me: Here is a test ping to Philip at Perils of Caffeine. 12:01:50 PM  trackback []  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dave Pollard. Last update: 19/02/2004; 2:58:14 PM.