Maybe I can talk Charles into flying back next month when Doom III is released. I’m curious to see whether it will live up to the hype, but I think I’ll survive even if I don’t get to play it. I’m probably fulfilling my annual quota of computer-game-playing during this week. It’s so much nicer to sit back and order someone else around: “Go left! No, right! Shoot!” Much less strain on the neck. But I find that I still get bored with multi-player options in games. My friend has been playing a lot of multi-player Halo and it just seems repetitive. I guess I prefer games that are driven by a cohesive storyline. And in single-player games, you don’t have annoying 14-year-olds with monikers like “Fartmonkey” and “Butt Pirate” running around and calling everyone “faggot.” There’s something about on-line games that brings out a homoerotic streak in young men.

Anybody want some really cool Kerry 2004 disability-themed campaign buttons? It has the universal wheelchair icon with “John Kerry” spelled out in American Sign Language. I’m selling them for $2 apiece as part of fundraising efforts for the local Kerry/Edwards Disability Steering Committee. If you would like one, send me $2 via PayPal to msiegel1@mn.rr.com. I’ll cover postage and I’ll even throw in a free bumper sticker with the same design. All the cool gimps will be accessorizing with them this fall. And if you can’t afford the $2, let me know and I’ll still send you stuff. I’m all about spreading the meme.

…is no longer necessary. Japanese officials arrested him today on passport violations and he may be deported to the U.S., where he’s wanted on charges of sanction violations for playing a tournament in Yugoslavia in 1992. When I started playing chess, Bobby Fischer was the first chess “celebrity” I had ever heard of. And then as I got older I learned about his odd behavior and his virulent anti-Semitism. Now he strikes me as a sad, pathetic man who squandered any opportunity he might have had to achieve true greatness.
The UN has a list of ten stories that the world should know more about. One of the stories concerns work on an international treaty to protect the rights of people with disabilities. The article provides a good overview of past UN instruments dealing with the rights of PWD and how to the proposed treaty will be a more comprehensive declaration of their rights. The article also makes some interesting observations about rights as a function of a nation’s economic resources. Can a PWD living in the United States and a PWD living in Cameroon or Syria expect the same rights and protections? If a country doesn’t have the resources to make buildings accessible or to provide basic support services (like education), do those inadequacies constitute a fundamental violation of an individual’s rights? These are fascinating questions and the policy wonk in me yearns to be involved in these discussions. I read that the UN may set up a monitoring body to oversee enforcement of the treaty once it’s signed and I’d love a chance to interview for that kind of job. I’m well aware of the UN’s shortcomings, but I respect the ideals for which it stands and I believe it has the capacity to work for real change in the world.
My friend is flying in tonight. Blogging may be more abbreviated over the next week, but should still proceed on schedule.

Hugh Gallagher died today. Professor Gallagher was one of the first scholars to do serious work in the area of disability studies. He wrote a biography of FDR that focused on his decision to hide his disability from the public. He wrote on the Nazi plans to exterminate people with disabilities, which was a big source of inspiration for my law journal article. I had the opportunity to hear him lecture a few years ago and I was impressed with his thoughtfulness and breadth of knowledge.
You want to know how much of a geek I am? I get excited over things like a new remote control for my entertainment center. I read a few reviews of the Harmony remote and managed to score one off of eBay. It had me a bit flummoxed at first because it doesn’t work like a traditional universal remote. It doesn’t have separate function buttons for each component. Instead, it focuses on activities–watching TV, watching a DVD, etc. But where this remote really earns its cool factor is its ability to be programmed on the web. So after a little experimentation, I had it customized to suit my needs and I’m quite happy with it now.
My boy Obama is delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, confirming his status as a rising star in the party. If I was an Illinois resident, I would be quitting my job to join his campaign. And with Ditka deciding he’d rather endorse Levitra than run a campaign, it looks like Obama has clear sailing between now and Election Day.

The past few years may have made me paranoid, but these discussions about possibly delaying the November election give me pause. If a dozen cities are wiped out by nuclear bombs, then maybe I can see the merits of postponing an election. But barring something spectacular, I can’t see the logic in this kind of thing. Bush may be concerned that the country will follow Spain’s example and give him the boot if we’re attacked again. I think that oversimplifies what happened in Spain. Voters there were pissed because the ruling party initially tried to pin blame for the attacks on ETA when all of the evidence pointed to Arab terrorists. If not for this cover-up and its fallout, the government might have won reelection. And if something like that does happen here, it’s impossible to say what the political ramifications are. People may get scared and decide Bush needs to stay. Or they may get angry and decide new leadership is needed. Either way, a delay in elections would feel a lot like martial law to me.
From an editorial in today’s NY Times: “The survey, by the National Endowment for the Arts, also indicates that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don’t to visit museums and attend musical performances, almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work, and almost twice as likely to attend sporting events. Readers, in other words, are active, while nonreaders � more than half the population � have settled into apathy.” The author makes an interesting observation about how incidences of depression seem to rise in correlation with our increased consumption of television and other electronic media. He has no data or research to support that claim, but it’s still an interesting basis for an argument. On a purely anecdotal level, I’ve noticed that I feel just…I dunno…icky if I watch more than 2-3 hours of television at a time. Like the mental equivalent of eating too many Doritos. I don’t get that feeling if I read for the same amount of time. I’m not sure reading how reading got its reputation as the pastime of the bespectacled, intellectual elite tucked away in the salons of their ivory towers. The proliferation of big-chain bookstores in towns big and small seems to belie that notion. Our public school system can probably share in some of the blame for this trend. Too often, kids are introduced to reading as simply another chore forced on them by the adult world. It’s something to endure, not enjoy. And that festers into adulthood and is in turn passed on to the next generation.
So I guess I should conclude this rambling by thanking Miss Kay Summerfield, my kindergarten teacher at Anne Sullivan School. She was the one who taught me to read when I couldn’t have been much more than 3 or 4. And it never felt like a chore.