MISCmedia for 1/29/01
The Big W Stands for Wuss

WHAT WE KNOW about Bush Administration deux after a little over one week:

• You shouldn't boycott the "W" hotel chain just because it uses the same initial.

• The guy's got all Reagan's weaknesses (oversimplified worldviews, lack of strategic thinking, general wussiness toward big-money hustlers) without any of Reagan's strengths (the abilities to give a stirring speech and wear a good suit).

• Clinton was an apologetic champion for corporate raiders, consolidators, questionable financiers, and environmental rapiers. Bush fils will continue these same destructive policies, just without the apologies.

• That "bipartisan," "building," and "unity" talk was just talk. But you knew that already.

• He's not a religious-right idealogue, but he willingly goes through a rote routine of pandering to them: Sticking it to Planned Parenthood; shafting public schools in order to shunt govt. $$ to private schools; letting John Ashcroft play the Bad Cop far-right hothead (and possibly sacrificing the guy in the Senate confirmations).

  I predict: He'll see how much stink these actions raise; then, if they raise sufficient stink, he'll pretend to be reluctantly disappointed as he backs off from the positions he's now pretending to uphold.

• He was more passionate about becoming President than about actually doing anything thereafter.

  He's a dealmaker, the kind of business tycoon who accomplishes power-building transactions, then lets others sort out the resulting operations. (Except he's generally gotten along in business (and Texas statehouse politics) because of his name, and let other guys do even the dealmaking details.)

  He'll play out his term as an affable head of state, kowtowing to whatever national agenda Federal Reserve head Alan Greenspan pushes--just like Clinton eventually did.

• "Liberal" media? Bah! The NY Times did just a thorough job of deliberately ignoring the inauguration protests as the Fox News Channel did.

NEXT: What's wrong with Playboy isn't what feminists think is wrong with it.

IN OTHER NEWS: If you haven't noticed, I've cut out about a third of the clutter around the left and right sides of this page. If anyone still has trouble loading the site properly, please let me know.

ELSEWHERE:

• Exactly a year ago in these virtual pages, almost, I joked about ex-radical intellectuals raking in big bucks for their now-conservative views. According to the academic journal Lingua Franca, this trend may be reversing (found by Robot Wisdom)....

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• A glimpse of our forthcoming coffee-table photo book.
• Still more new cable channels.
• Just when you thought the '70s revival was dead, here comes a new energy crisis.
• Should we pity poor Belltown yet?
• How to improve Ken Burns's Jazz.
• I know what IT is, and if you're nice I just might tell you.
• Yes, Virginia, there's race discrimination in "nice" Seattle.
• A Hollywood insider acknowledges the death of the mass audience.
• Lynda Barry's Cruddy is anything but.
• My dream of a permanent alternative daily paper.
• People you're not better than.
• Parts one, and two of a remembrance at some people, buildings, and institutions that are gone or going at this time.
• Parts one, two, and three of a look at the possible next-big-thing in pop-cult genre repositionings, Christian smut.
• A new arts magazine just for wealthy patrons.
• No, the WTO protests shouldn't just be remembered as a self-promotion exercise.
• What you might expect on this site during the new year.
• What's Insville and Outski for 2001.
• Parts one, two, three, and four of 'A Dot-Com Christmas Carol.'
• Some of the biggest local spectacles of 2000.
• Point, click, organize.

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• Some slightly weird little fiction pieces
• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving
• Cyber Stuff, links to cool and/or useful sites
• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate)
• The origin and future of MISCmedia