I’ll elaborate on my argument another day, but here is some source material first:

The new design.
DF’s criticism is representative and flawed.
A video about the new design.

Concisely, my opinion is that American Cash is still pretty badly designed overall, but that it has been making great big positive strides recently and that this criticism is too broad and badly out of context.

How about if the debates were filmed and broadcast in black and white?

I was just looking at some photos (here) from the first Presidential debates that made me realize that I really love Obama as a person, even though I still intend to vote for Ralph Nader on principal. Holy Jesus, I hope Obama is elected.

Anyhow, the set for the debate was ridiculous: blue walls, red carpets, weird neo-deco lecterns, and script font wall projections of the Constitution or some other document of Democracy (it was illegible). What the fuck is that? Some more cartoon imagery pretending to represent a falsely presupposed understanding of an unstated concept that doesn’t exist based on fallacious and illusory patriotic nostalgia, I guess.

So I thought, “wouldn’t it be dramatic and nice if they shot these debates in startling close-up under starkly lit black and white?” Especially appropriate, I thought, in a race where race is a central though unspoken issue. Like in the recent dramatization of Edward R Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck. That’d be sweet, and it might help me suppress my gag reflex.

Also, on the issue of race: What the fuck, you racist hill-jack fucks!?!* Stop voting for causes that don’t benefit you. Just because most rich people in America are white doesn’t mean you’re on their team, idiot.

*Obviously, this statement only applies to certain people. Hopefully you can tell who you are. I love you.

But something is wrong. These inherently radical candidates are watering down their message to the typical, useless, centrist Democratic drivel that has lost the Dems the last two Presidential races: races they were practically handed on a platter.

And John Edwards, the rich white man from the south, is actually the one saying the most revolutionary things.

Shit like this is why no one cares anymore. God, it’s all so obvious and lame.

I’ve been up to my ears in jackassery lately, ->

but it’s nice to see someone in the media effectively acting like a watchdog these days. It’s not just Gruber, either. Lately there seems to be a lot of independent but popular writers in the Mac media calling “bullshit” when they see it and parsing said bullshit with highly logical retorts. Even MacWorld stood up for decent journalism recently when they were linked to a sensational piece published under their own umbrella corporation: so it’s not just the bloggers.
The sad and scary thing is that this watch-dogging is of the major media, which is itself supposed to be watching over the government and all else that is powerful and potentially dangerous to normal citizens. I can’t decide if the trend of independent people checking up on the large media organizations is a sign of hope that a technology may finally be helping the common man and the cause of equality, or a portent of doom that our major media institutions are not fulfilling their social task at all.

In the meantime, I’ve found a new iChat status message.

Also, go use Apple’s new .Mac Webmail. It’s gorgeous. Turn on Keyboard shortcuts in the preferences.