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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Sunday, September 05, 2004
Kerry's Commandos
Depressed and disillusioned by the latest polls, I've reached the conclusion that Kerry is getting it all wrong. He has failed to fully grasp the red-meat, alpha-male allure of his opponents, or the importance to this electorate of easy-to-read labels. Intellectually, what the GOP came up with last week was banal junk. But subconsciously, in the place where we feel the tug of fear and the reassurance of hierarchy, it worked a treat.
If I were running the Kerry campaign, my first act would be to create a volunteer group called -- without apology or irony -- Kerry's Commandos. The first inductees, the ones the TV cameras would capture, would be veterans, but part of the Commandos' appeal would be as a populist movement: anyone could join up.
The Commandos' orders would be to fan out across the country, leave their homes, take a break from their jobs (assuming they still have any), spread out across the diners and bars, talk shows and letters pages, there to do righteous battle with the vile slurs, the sickening mud slung against Kerry by the SBVTs and the Zell Millers of this world. A display of overwhelming force; shock and awe, if you will.
Sure, they would be given talking points, just like Republican troops – but only as an aide de memoire, or rather, an aide de colere. Few on the side of moderation will need much of a spur to remember what they're angry about. The points could be as short as this:
- Abu Ghraib
- 'Mission Accomplished'
- Net job loss over last four years, first time since Hoover
- 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within the United States'
- Halliburton welfare
- 'Kenny Boy'
- Roe v. Wade
- Bush v. Gore
- Guantanamo
- Civil liberties? Hello?
- WMD? Hello?
The point being that if the outrage is heartfelt, sanctioned, focused, open to all, and tagged with a militarist mnemonic –- right there is the key to winning the heartland. Best of all, it would be stealing just about every leaf out of the Republican handbook. They'd be hopping mad. And effectively neutered.
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