May 28 2007
Archive for May, 2007
May 21 2007
My iPod Naked
Barely two years into its life span my iPod Mini battery is dying. I didn’t even use it that much! Anyway, got the word that I can replace the battery myself and did so moments ago. I order a kit from TechForLess.com and finished the job in 30 min. I don’t like iPod’s proprietariness (?) but I am impressed with its workmanship. It is almost European in that regard. Beautiful piece of work. Too bad now it has two ugly screwdrivers marks on both ends.
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| Frontal view. All the buttons and circuits … oh yeah | Back view. The kit comes with a special screwdriver and a replacement battery for $16. |
May 20 2007
Being Liberal and Liberalism
Again, heard this piece from Diane’s show while hiking … George Orwell once said, “A Liberal is a power worshipper without power”. At first, I thought it was a catchy phrase but then I was deeply impressed by it. What he is saying is that the liberals, or those who want to break up the status quo, tend to be the losers in the current system. Therefore, this is a very political point of view but not ideological at all. In other words, one can be a social reactionary but still count himself as a political “liberal” at times.
No, I am not talking about Barry Goldwater here. Rather, I am thinking black evangelicals or xenophobic union members: socially, they can be very conservative but politically, they are the agitators, constantly pointing out inequality and pressing for reforms.
The interesting counterfactual argument is, what if they have power? Again, thinking back to Orwell now, they are liberal because they are without power. But what if they have power all of a sudden? Are they still liberals? Who is “the true liberal”: a social conservative but a political liberal or a social liberal but political conservative (aka a Rockefeller Republican)? It is interesting how a one dimensional issue can become two-dimensional.