Archives for August 2004

Really modern usage

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Wired News announced yesterday that it is no longer capitalizing Internet, Web, or Net in its stories. The move aims to put those media on par with radio and television, which also aren’t capitalized. Being a bit of a style Nazi since my days as a PR person, I still haven’t made up my mind on this one.

The AP Stylebook capitalizes Internet and Web, and eschews Net altogether. The thing is that unlike radio or television, the Internet is one particular network. One could theoretically foresee another worldwide network being built on a different protocol and with a different name. This is why AP, for example, doesn’t capitalize cyberspace or intranet. But practically speaking, Wired News is right, and the Wired Style guide is path-setting when it comes to high tech usage. I wouldn’t be surprised if AP followed suit. Me, I’ll still have to think about it some more before I decide to make a change in these pages and on Brainwash.

BONUS QUOTE (from Walter Cronkite’s final newspaper column this week): “I am dumbfounded that there hasn’t been a crackdown with the libel and slander laws on some of these would-be writers and reporters on the Internet. I expect that to develop in the fairly near future.”

Aug 17, 2004 | Comment

Even I’m undecided

Drudge reported today that part of the agenda for a second Bush term is getting rid of the IRS and replacing the income tax with a national sales tax or a VAT. If the president does indeed unveil such a campaign promise, I might have to reconsider the “Anyone But Bush” pin I keep on this site.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating. My opposition to President Bush stems not from any excitement about John Kerry, but simply from a belief that Bush’s foreign policy and domestic spending needs to be punished with an electoral defeat. Maybe then the Republican Party will retreat from the neoconservative path it has embarked on.

But what are the odds that, even if proposed, Bush would eliminate the IRS? About as good as privatizing Social Security—something about which he has completely forgotten.

Under a President Kerry, colossal spending begun under Bush will surely increase, if only not for faith-based programs. And then there’s the Supreme Court. From the new Atlantic Monthly:

No new justices have been appointed for a decade (the second longest such period in history); given the age of the incumbents, the next President may appoint as many as four–an opportunity no President has had since Richard Nixon’s first term. Justices appointed by the next President could remain on the Court through the 2030s….“

A lot of good Richard Nixon’s appointments did us. Nevertheless, I would probably feel much better if Bush was doing the appointing. While abortion rights will remain available even under Bush, Kerry nominees could do real damage to the Second Amendment, federalism generally, and much else.

So, although I still would like to see Bush defeated, I am very depressed about the prospects of a Kerry victory. It is difficult having a consistent ideology these days.

Aug 3, 2004 | 1 Comment

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