Brian "Arkle" Webber: Podcaster

30 September 2008

Seperation of Church and State is in dire straits.

This was just too big to put in my Dogma Alert segment this week.

"With respect to public acknowledgment of religious belief, it is entirely clear from our Nation's historical practices that the Establishment Clause permits this disregard of polytheists and believers in unconcerned deities, just as it permits the disregard of devout atheists." (McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, 545 U.S. 844 (2005) (Justice Anton Scalia dissenting).

"Quite simply, the Establishment Clause is best understood as a federalism provision — it protects state establishments from federal interference but does not protect any individual rights. . . . .[E]ven assuming that the Establishment Clause precludes the Federal Government from establishing a national religion, it does not follow that the Clause created or protects any individual right. . . . it is more likely that States and only States were the direct beneficiaries. Moreover, incorporation of this putative individual right leads to a particular outcome: It would prohibit precisely what the Establishment Clause was intended to protect — state establishments of religion." (Justice Clarence Thomas, concurring opinion, Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow).

According to the lifetime appointees of the U.S. Supreme Court, at best only monotheists have religious freedom and states can establish their own religion or church. These are the same sort of justices that John McCain has promised.

11 September 2008

9-11: How a tragedy became a tactic

Thanks to Ralphy from MySpace for the vid.

27 August 2008

Geek of all Trades Episode #6: What do I hate more? September, or The Doom Generation? I can't pick.

In which our illustrious host talks about his poor prognostication skills, apologizes (again), geeks out about a bus, faintly praises Death Race, goes on a rant about movie critics, and tries to play an awesome speech.

Contact Me:

Voicemail Line: 206-600-4966

E-Mails: brian.d.webber@gmail.com, or arkle@comcast.net

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723188282

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/arklemknzy

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/arkle

Flixster: http://arkle.flixster.com

Main Site: http://arkle.silver-gateway.com

Podsafe Music: http://music.podshow.com/

This Week's Schenectady Mailbox Writing Prompt: "Of all the ways he thought he might die..."

Promos:

Geologic Podcast: http://www.geologicpodcast.com

Socergirl Inc.'s 300th Episode: http://www.soccergirlincorporated.com

Mentioned on the Show:

David Ippolito

Joe Biden

The episode of MILF & Cookies with my VP picks

Battle of Long Island

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

Petroleum discovered in Titusville, PA

Krakatoa

Florida DOT ceases producing distinctive colored U.S. Highway shields

Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years

C-SPAN

Hallelujah lyrics

Death Race

Cruel Summer lyrics

Playing For Keeps Launch Day results

The Shock Doctrine

The Case of the Pitcher's Pendant

Star Wars Coruscant Nights

Penguins dumping arsenic in Antarctica

First red blood cells grown in the lab

Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found

Monk arrested for giving away cash

Dennis Kucinich: Wake up America!

20 August 2008

Geek of all Trades Episode #5: Oh, September, you cruel bitch.

In which our illustrious host talks about his greatest non-corporeal enemy, brings back the Odd News after too long a break, officially (after weeks of yammering about it) includes his newest segment, talks about the new voicemail line, and makes a tough but neccesary decision regarding future episodes.

Contact Me:

Voicemail Line: 206-600-4966

E-Mails: brian.d.webber@gmail.com, or arkle@comcast.net

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723188282

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/arklemknzy

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/arkle

Flixster: http://arkle.flixster.com

Main Site: http://arkle.silver-gateway.com

Podsafe Music: http://music.podshow.com/

This Week's Schenectady Mailbox Writing Prompt: Months with personalities.

Promos:

Down The Road: http://www.12vtheater.com

Mentioned on the Show:

The Fire Apes

Lois McMaster Bujold

George R.R. Martin

Connie Willis

James Patrick Kelly

David Gerrold

2008 Hugo Award Winners

Star Trek Phase II

Basketball pros read pinkies to call shots

Man has sex with park bench

Groom charged with being too near bride at wedding

Springs to dampen NASA rocket's vibrations

The Weird Show

Parsec Award Nominations

Everybody Knows lyrics

The Verdict at MSNBC: Maddow Gets Own Show

Mukasey: No prosecutions in Justice hiring scandal

The Nightwatch

Khalid ibn al-Walid

President Andrew Johnson formally declared the American Civil War over

Prague Spring

The Abbey Road LP

Congress votes to reduce aid to South Vietnam

Patrick Sherrill

Retaliation for the Aug. 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya & Tanzania

Citytalkers by Mur Lafferty

Scientology comes to Kenya

13 August 2008

G.O.A.T. Bonus Episode #4: I'm sick

Lazy show notes.

05 August 2008

G.O.A.T. Bonus Episode #3

Right Wing History For August 5th.

Promo for Playing For Keeps

Lazy show notes

Bonus: Over at my writing blog, I was bored and had a little fun making up a "cast list" for the non-existent movie version of my book, And Here's To You (October 31st, ding). Feel free to check it out: http://arklewrimo.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-is-just-for-fun-cast-of-and-heres.html

01 August 2008

A review of my first podcast interview.

From my Dad:

Please remember I love you when you read what I have to say about the Mur Lafferty interview. I swear I mean this to be helpful.

First of all, while the majority of your audience may know her, Judy and Jenny [my grandmother and aunt respectively] don't, so saying someone needs no introduction and then not actually giving them even a cursory one is not only annoying to the listener, but probably to your guest too.Not knowing her I can't be certain, but there were a few times when it sounded to me like she might be annoyed, and that was one of them.

Secondly, when it is natural in the course of the interview that you interject something about yourself,do it then move on quickly. These were a couple of the other times when she sounded to me like she might be annoyed. You spent too much time on you, when your interview was supposed to be about her. If you and your guest are connecting and there is a great give and take some of this kind of behavior can be excused, but you guys did not connect, and that was another thing that led me to believe that she was not enjoying it. She answered quickly and without much elaboration after each question. That definitely gives the impression she is not
into it or you as the interviewer. Plus, she could have asked a couple of questions of you out of sheer politeness, but she didn't which gives me the impression of a selfish person.

Lest I give you the impression that I hated it, I did not. You were complimentary without going overboard into kiss ass, and you sounded more secure than you
probably felt. But I felt the above things were important enough to bring them up.

-

My response:

Well, you aren't the first to bring up that point about the introduction. Mur herself mentioned it obliquely on Twitter. What didn't make it into the show was the part of our conversation where I told her this was my first interview, and she gave me some encouragement. "Hey, everybody's gotta start somewhere." One of the things she says on her show I Should Be Writing is you're allowed to suck. The more interviews I do the better I'll get and I'll avoid a lot of those mistakes. I just hope I get to do more interviews. ;-)

Also, part of the not connecting may have been that on her end she was getting a bad echo because I didn't have a headset and lost my headphone extension cord so I had my speakers on during the recording. Also, I failed to tell her ahead of time how I was going to be recording it. She said it was distracting to her, and if I could've done something about it at the time I would've.

Like I said, in the future I'll be better, and maybe down the line I'll get a second shot. Season 5 of the Heaven series is coming out soon. But even if I don't, I got a chance to talk to one of my favorite writers, and it was a pleasent experience overall, just like when I met Peter David. It just as easily could've gone the other way, like when Kevin J. Anderson rudely dismissed my question at a ComicCon panel in 2006. See if I ever help him promote anything, the jerk.

Anyway, as per the selfish remark, I also chalk that up to her being distracted by the echo, but to be honest it didn't bother me that she never asked me anything. I've listened to a lot of podcast interviews in the nearly 3 years I've been into podcasting and I don't recall any interviewee doing something like that with an interviewer unless they were already friends, and Mur and I really only don't have anything beyond the "fan/artist" relationship, which is fine by me. I don't have to be friends with everyone in the podcasting community. The fact that I have as many as I do this early in my podcasting "career" frankly is astonishing. Not that I don't appreciate Tosus, and Jack, and Mark mind you. ;-)

So, I guess that's it then. Remember, a G.O.A.T. bonus episode is coming August 5th, and there will be a regular episode on August 13th, but it will be light on content because I'll be at WorldCon all week.

And lastly...