After Yahoo succeeded in search, it lost the plot and decided to be all things to all people. It was followed by other search engines of the era (now nearly all gone). Yahoo spent a lot of phony mega-billions trying to become something it wasn't. Among its purchases was Mark Cuban's Broadcast.Com. (Whatever happened to them?)
That’s when the crisis really starts. Because in every crack-up there is a chance, a real chance, that this time American democracy will not survive, that the defeated will not go quietly, that they will consider their cause more worthy than the nation’s existance, and bring the temple down on all our heads.
This game, this kind of game, happens every day, at every level. But you’ve got to wait through a lot of crap to find it. It’s the waiting for it that makes it beautiful
Even by my asking the question, many of you will now call me an anti-semite. You will dismiss me, dehumanize me, consider me an enemy. I’m not. But the question of Israel must be answered, for our sake, for the world’s sake, for Israel’s sake.
Yesterday teaches lessons, but that's all it can do. Tomorrow has its consequences, but you can't live there. You can only live today, right now, in the moment.
The crisis that requires this Myth to lead us out of the darkness, the crisis that requires these Values to be translated into values, is already upon us. The advocates open source ideals don't have the kind of time that Goldwater Republicans had, to refine those ideas, and to slowly build a political movement on their behalf.
Google is a good company but a very speculative stock. It may pay off, but there are real risks. Banking risks, for one thing. There are risks from government, not just the U.S. government either. There are growing legal risks doing business online. There is growing competition from Microsoft, and Yahoo, eBay and Amazon, too.
The Right Wing Noise Machine not only lacks answers, it doesn't even know the question, just as the Johnson's Great Society had no clue how to deal with the problems of the 1960s, even though it ruled all three branches of government.
The new Thesis lies within you. It’s in how you’re acting, in what you’re doing. The new Open Source Thesis is so internalized you can’t identify it. You know when it’s challenged, feel good when it’s validated, but you don’t quite know what to call it.
So what happens now? Hopefully municipal broadband happens now. Hopefully, if you have a cable connection, you’ll close your account with the phone company now. Hopefully, the idea that broadband is a public utility everyone needs will start to grow.
