Passion as Vitrol

"Take LeSage, for instance--my friend, my employer, my Rose of Madison Avenue. You think it was his ego that got him in television? Like hell it was! He has no ego any more--if ever he had one. He's split it up into hobbies. He has at least three hobbies that I know of--and they all have to do with a big, ten-thousand-dollar workroom in his basement, full of power tools and vises and God knows what else. Nobody who's really using his ego, his real ego, has any time for any goddam hobbies." Zooey Glass, Franny and Zooey.

I quote Salinger here not to bump my literary cred but to make a point about passions and the idea of following one's bliss. Most people here the phrase "follow your bliss" and think of some neo-mystic and all too fake guru promising enlightenment and happiness if you would just buy this book and associated dvds. Of course I take a different view. I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't think following my bliss was important. But the phrase is misunderstood. Salinger, through the voice of Zooey Glass, gets it though. Hobbies are excuses to avoid ever having to pursue your passions. As Joseph Campbell said (the originator of the phrase "follow your bliss") to pursue your passions is like walking on the edge of a sword. Yes, you may fail, you may fail horribly. But what else are you going to do? You can live like LeSage, filling your time with hobbies whenever you are off work. You can watch your television, play games, drink, practice yoga, meditation and martial arts. There are thousands of ways you can spend your time to keep the boredom at bay. But none of that, not a single one, matters if it doesn't push you along your chosen path.
Sometimes you need the trivial and banal. There's a sense of catharsis, of cleansing when you engage in activities that ultimately don't matter. Every action you take does not have to hold a purpose. Yet hobbies are an illusion of purposeful action. That's the trick of hobbies. The real ego can't allow for hobbies to distract. If what you purposefully do in your spare time does not build toward the realization of your bliss then you are simply masturbating. And as masturbation is compared to sex, hobbies grant only a brief reprieve from the emotional need to purse something, anything.
I don't believe that we are born with a purpose, at least not all of us. Existence itself is not a purpose. And I also believe that we get the life we have right now only once. Whatever happens after we die we get this life just once. So if we are not intrinsically imbued with a purpose and we only get this existence once then why not do something with it? We get to choose our own purpose and we damn well better choose a purpose that makes us happy. Yes, not all of us get to fulfill our chosen purpose, not all of us get to be happy. That's life, so be it. But to surrender yourself to the soul-sucking experience of hobbies, never making the attempt to follow your bliss at all? I can't handle that.
Don't aspire for anything and don't aspire to be anything. You are either doing it or you are not. If the entirety of your existence is based around the jobs you have and your life is based around the time that you are not at your job and not sleeping then what the hell are you doing? As I said, hobbies are an excuse. They are a blatant attempt to run as fast as you can from acknowledging that you are wasting your fucking time.

Your Money or Your Vote

To comment on Miss Information's post below on the recent Supreme Court rulings, I want to note that one of the biggest mistakes the court has made in the last few decades was ruling that money equals speech. Any effort to reform campaign finance is going to run against this idea. I personally don't believe that money equals speech primarily on the basis that free speech is inherently about the equal access to speech. Yet for the vast majority of Americans we do not have the monies necessary to put up a political ad, provide serious funding to a political candidate or buy the services of a lobbyist to argue our case to a representative. While we do have our ability to vote and make our voices heard through polling we have little recourse beyond that. Unless we actively organize every time an issue of concern to us arose we have little chance of affecting the votes of our representatives. For a lot of people, myself included, such constant protesting is unfeasible and unrealistic, which the more cynical representatives count on.
Such is not the case for corporations, particularly those that have an agenda that requires the services of a representative or senator. Corporations, with their large piles of liquid cash, can easily buy air time to run political ads, offer large campaign contributions or hire a literal army of lobbyists to push their wants and desires before Congress. To make the argument that money equals speech is to say that some people or organizations have more access to speech than others. More importantly, those with more money have greater access to speech and thus have a greater chance of having their voice heard. This is not to argue that there is some grand corporate conspiracy to lock out the voice of the average American (although that is entirely possible) but simply to point out the logical inconsistency between our Constitutionally protected ideas and how the Supreme Court shapes the limits of those ideas. I think that such rulings as money equals speech run counter to our idea of equal opportunity and access, allowing corporations to hold greater rights than that of the individual. This is a fundamental flaw that I do not see going away until the composition of the court changes, and not just in a left/right division.

money, so they say…

Jordan Jordan threatened my kneecaps with a tire iron so I have agreed to guest-blog on this fine syndicated publication, The Oddity Odyssey. I also do something like blogging over at Miss Information. All of it’s true, none of it’s relevant.

Since I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse gladly agreed to blog on the interplay between corporations and politics in the US, I’d like to begin with a rant on the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life and McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life, 06-969 (full-text .pdf of decision is here).

There is one phrase in the majority opinion that I’d like to briefly discuss, in which Justice Roberts, writing for the court, rules that only those advertisements that are paid for by corporations during the pre-election period and are “susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate” may be kept off the air. I’m still reviewing the entire decision, but this makes me wonder – shouldn’t any platform issue, political issue, etc. be construed as an appeal for a particular candidate? I mean, arent we supposed to understand what these candidates represent, what they stand for and shouldnt it be blatantly obvious to any “reasonable” person which candidate(s) these corporations’ monies are promoting in an advertisement?

Are we so blind that we really do not see the corporations behind the curtain?

Apparently so, and it would seem that the Supreme Court would like to keep it that way by continuing to find exceptions and protections for financial contributions to campaigns by corporations and private interests. With this "free speech" decision, the Court has continued it's trend and handed our government to private interests and corporations, on a silver platter, then called it a constitutional right!

As usual, John Stewart puts it well...

Guest-Blogging, Or Why We Matter

For the next week I have invited a friend of mine, Emily Cunningham, to guest-blog about the nexus of politics and corporations. Actually, there's a bet I plan to win, but you get the idea. She's almost as opinionated as I am and has a tendency to take unusual and intriguing views. When I first proposed the idea to her she immediately grasped on a plan to write about the influence of corporations in modern politics, something that I have thus far neglected. I will continue to blog as I normally do (i.e., erratically and rant-like) and any comments I have about Emily's posts will appear as separate posts with links to the commented posts. I hope to keep her around for the occasional specialty of the week but for the moment we will see what kind of brilliance she can put on for us. So welcome, Emily.

Power Lying in the Streets

Rioting in Iran - Andrew Sullivan

Comforting news for the revolutionary in me. There are enough dissidents in Iran to overthrow the regime. The problem is getting them to act in unison. Here's to hoping...

Black Devil Disco Club

Black Devil Disco Club - Pitchfork

I found a track by this group on Hot Chip's DJ Kicks comp that I purchases Saturday. Spent as much time as I could tracking down tracks by this group and another defunct group called Gramme. While the track "Like U" by Gramme is brilliant in it's strangely prescient electro-rock stylings, it's the back story behind Black Devil Disco Club that gets me. The music is excellent, whether it was done in 1979 as is claimed or done in the last five years. Supposedly, the original e.p. was kept secret for nearly twenty years until dug up by one of the guys from the Chemical Brothers and sampled in one of their tracks. After seeing a series of vinyl pressings, the tracks finally hit last year in the form of a six-song e.p. It's all a big mystery really, which only add to the haunted aura of the music, stripped down (or futuristic depending on your time frame) and the production is actually pretty good for what is supposed to be a self-produced, small-time act. Any fan of the Knife (of which I have only a partial liking) should listen to this group and hunt down as many tracks as you can. I love it, I love the story and I love the way the name rolls off your tongue. Bands should have names like this more often. It points you in a direction and kicks you when you look.

The Meditative Mind

Meditate...to Concentrate - Science Blog

And twice in one day we have an article that promotes the benefits of meditation.

Intelligent Design Not So Intelligent

UK Gov boots intelligent design back into 'religious' margins - The Register

The greatest obstacle intelligent design faced in gaining acceptance is the ability to test it. The whole 'black box' aspect of intelligent design is the kicker. It's not that you can't falsify results. It's that you can't even explain the process fully. While the current Darwinist iteration of evolution doesn't explain everything the fact remains that one day either it will explain everything about evolution or a new theory will come along to explain more. Intelligent design does offer a full and robust explanation but the problem is you can't examine all the steps. There are moments in the process where you simply say, "the intelligent designer did it," and leave it at that. That's not science as it is traditionally understood and practiced. You have to explain everything and every step along the way. That was intelligent design's failure.

Mindfulness

Putting feelings into words produces therapeutic effects in the brain - Science Blog

All along I've been touting the benefits of meditation and here we have a scientific study proving me right once again. The point of mindful meditation is not to arrive at a solution to a problem but merely to examine a particular aspect of yourself, whether physical or psychological. Putting words to a psychological state is important as it allows you to place it in the realm of logic. Language is inherently logical, which is why it cannot capture everything about the world, yet it does provide us a means to express things about the world. Psychological states are all the more troublesome for language as language only works in public. If you simply exist with your emotions without expressing them then you only have a tacit understanding of those emotions. Once you place those emotions in the public space by putting them to words you have a frame of reference that allows you to examine and understand the emotions. When I meditate I will move from focus on breathing to a particular issue in my mind, whether as banal as politics or as personal as who I am. I'm not looking for answers, simply the effort to concentrate on a particular topic. I tend to feel clear-minded afterwards, even if it's only a ten-minute session. I've actually gone two hours before, which was a bit of a mind-bender.

Conscription

Serving the Servants - Matt Yglesias

Unlike Mr. Yglesias, I think we are coming to a point in our history where a form of conscription is almost necessary. But like Matt, I do think that we need to expand the idea of what conscription would include. Yet the way I think of it is not in terms of rebuilding our armed forces or providing enough bodies for agencies like Child Protective Services and homeland security. I think of it as a means of adjusting the country's attitude toward college and the expectations of our post-grade school teens and twenty-somethings. I believe we should have a 'gap year' between high school and college where teens are allowed to experience the world in a non-academic fashion. I also believe that conscription would take a mass of teens and give them a sense of what is possible for their lives. Conscription does not have to focus solely on military service. Instead we could easily fill the ranks of civil organizations and agencies that commonly suffer from understaffing. CPS is a glaring example of where we need far more people than we get, even if those people are there just to do office work. Police forces, border patrols, emergency services, there's a whole host of public service jobs out there that desperately need more people. Sure, there's a good portion of the conscription classes that would opt for military services, but with a population of our size we would still have plenty of teens left over to fill the ranks of civil service.
I would not be opposed to putting my future children through conscription, nor am I opposed to doing it myself. Say two years for military service or four years for civil service. Such an arrangement would put a lot of post-high school kids in college when they are around 21 to 23. It will have put them through an experience where they must display responsibility right after spending a year without any serious responsibility. It would raise the value of a high school education since a good number of kids wouldn't go on to college afterwards while providing those who do go on to college with the money and attitude to make it through successfully. Certainly there are those kids who will not do well in conscription, just as there are kids who don't do well in college or life in general. We can do what we can for them but at some point either they get it or they don't. But still, I think that conscription would offer the post-high school kids with an opportunity to get their feet wet without pushing them into the world defenseless and unprepared. Particularly for those kids who don't go on to college and never intended to, conscription would offer them the chance to learn about the possibilities. I like the idea and I think there are practical ways of implementing it, even in today's political climate.

The Soul of Drugs

Pharoahe Monch: Desire - Pitchfork

I don't agree with everything Kanye West says nor do I think he is as great as he thinks he is. Still, there's something to be said for socially relevant hip-hop in today's world. Monch seems to believe in the same ideals as someone like Common does. I know it isn't pop rap but I do think that the more artists like Common, Pharoahe and the Roots promote a social conscious the more rap listeners will pay attention. To shift the culture of hip-hop away from the glorification of drugs, sex and money will take as much time and effort as it did with rock. Today we have rock artists who write in a far greater range than previous, but that came after the Rolling Stones, Iggy and the Stooges, Bon Jovi and Oasis. Even still we have acts that romanticize the rock-n-roll lifestyle but it's done in a far more self-conscious fashion. Hip hop will get there too and artists like Kanye will help bring it there. And the thing is, we still need that dirtiness romanticized drug use, sex and money provides for catharsis and to remind us what is possible and the repercussions of such activities.

Recording the Falsehoods

A Law Unto Himself - Andrew Sullivan

It's unsurprising that Vice President Cheney has taken it upon himself to expand the powers of the executive branch but the argument that neither the president or the vice president belong to the executive branch belies a fundamental misunderstanding of our system. I don't honestly believe that VP Cheney does not know which branch of government he belongs to. Of course he does, but that he is willing to make such an argument is all the more frightening with that knowledge. I sincerely doubt that VP Cheney will take this as far as it can go since impeachment becomes an all too real option but he does want to stall as long as possible. If no new law or court ruling is made about the matter of executive branch papers then other presidents in the future still have the option of making this argument. Unless the argument is knocked down in court or through legislation then the informal assumption of presidential prerogative remains. I do believe in the necessity of keeping some information away from the public for the sake of clear advice and national security. At the same time, I do believe that maintaining records is necessary for later scholars to pour over and examine.

Obscure R.E.M. Reference

My mind is powered by love and anger. I have yet to figure out how to use love.
I'm right and you're wrong so shut up and listen.
Peoples is Peoples.
Society and the individual both run on inertia.
Politics is morality without morality.
Everything is connected and that is entirely irrelevant to the point.
Information is the fundamental element of the world.
Seven Kings ruled Rome and we know next to nothing about them.
I like puppies, but I like kittens more.
Books are my shelter and my weapon.
Time is optional.
I'm not going to dumb myself down. I'm going to raise you up.
Great things happen because we say they happen.
History free of bias is impossible, but history free of facts is all too real.
The body must remain as fit as the mind for both to work properly.
Objective advice means seeing the subjective mind.
I like to smoke and stare at things. Sometimes what I stare at bursts into flames.
Anti-depressants are the only thing keeping me from serious, unconscionable acts of violence.
The physical universe makes no sense, which makes absolute sense.
The rebel is preferable to the revolutionary.
Nietzsche is Nietzsche.
I am not deep and profound. I am simple and clear.
The agony of love is only one part of the experience.
You only get this life once so you might as well be happy.
I frequently experience déjà vu.
Man is a social animal who doesn't play well with others.
Blogs are the coffeehouses of the 21st century. I'm waiting for the Even-More-Glorious Revolution.
The electric gods of the 19th century will come back for us.
The nuclear gods of the 20th century are in our closets.
I always have something important to say before I speak.

The Average of the Average

President Bush's Approval Numbers - Pollster.com

Now I'm not one to kick a man when he's down (actually, I am but let's pretend for a moment, shall we?) but with the president now hovering around 31% one has to wonder what he will do? How can a president who relentlessly pursues a course of action that has steadily grown unpopular turn around his fortunes? The problem is that President Bush is in what the chess masters call a zugzwang, or a position from which there is no obvious solution. Of course, there always is but it takes a calculating mind to realize what kind of sacrifices are necessary to save yourself. Trouble is, President Bush would have to realize that he is in a zugzwang first before he can begin to come up with a solution.

Water Shields

Liquid Armor: From "Urban Legend" to Real Defense? - The Danger Room

Well, don't know about the guys at Wired but when I think of water as a defense against bullets and shrapnel I think of the Mythbusters episode that tested just this question. What they found was that the faster a bullet flies the more energy is absorbed by water on impact. I don't know if the system these soldiers have rigged up will work but in theory it should.

Personalization

The Book Inscriptions Project

This is amazingly cool. There's something about book inscriptions that transforms an otherwise unremarkable object into something incredibly personal. That we now have a web site that collects such inscriptions I think will become a huge resource for historians, sociologists and literary critics. It's not so much what you have in your library (while it is important) it also matter who gave you a particular book. There are a lot of questions one can ask of inscriptions and a lot of answers one can glean from the inscriptions.

Desert Mind and Nothing Else

'Learning and Growing' in Jail, Hilton Drops Plans to Appeal - WaPo

The thing I don't think most people realize about Paris Hilton's imprisonment is that she's stuck in isolation for the majority of the day. And by majority I mean nearly 23 hours a day. This is what I would call the 'penitence' of a penitentiary. Being left alone like that, for someone who generally has the mental appearance of the Sahara desert, is probably a new kind of hell. Nothing but the four walls, the door, the bed, the toilet and your thoughts. After the two thousandth time of looking over the items in your room you have nothing left but your thoughts. Every single random thought, little thought, big thought, crazy thought, all of it, running together constantly. Yes, meditation would offer some relief but for the untrained mind it's not much. I would not be surprised if Hilton does experience a sort of transformation during her 40-days in the desert experience. Whether it lasts I don't know but this kind of punishment for someone who relies on constant contact with the world is spot on.

Prosperity My Ass

Democrat's Prosperity Problem - George Will, WaPo

This is bunk, absolute bunk. Will talks about the growing wealth in the country when I can see every day that isn't true. My parents have seen the last few years of tepid income as have the rest of the merchants in the shopping plaza where their store is. It's not that the economy has tanked but the fact remains we're still drawing in mid-90s gross income while we have seen our inventory costs rise. The doubling of gold and platinum prices have caused all sorts of problems for them. While I agree that the tax system is fundamentally broken I don't agree for the same reasons nor to I want the same solutions that Will does. I think instead we need to see a serious effort to simplify taxes while easing the tax burden on the middle class. This means increasing taxes on the rich. This also means flattening out the tax curve, particularly for corporations, as the gift of tax breaks for businesses has led to corporations counting on such breaks. I think it would prove amazingly beneficial if we could remove the majority of tax breaks on businesses while lowering the corporate tax, thus providing the benefits of lower taxes for all. The problem is when you start messing with the tax code you run into the problem of a) powerful corporate interests; and b) the difficulty of providing the same tax revenue to the government while lowering taxes as much as possible. Now I think we could come up with a fairer tax system, even with the current political climate, but I sincerely doubt that such a system would even make it out of committee.

Paper Sounds

Interactive Paper Sounds Exciting - New Scientist

I highly approve of this development. Imagine a newspaper made of this material that announced instant updates. Of course, what this might lead to is a cacophonous noise on the subway, beyond the old woman proclaiming the power of Christ and her need for a few bucks.

Goodbye Kitty

Hello Kitty in NEC's lap - L'Inq

'A' for effort and all that. Still, NEC needs, you know, actual women on their marketing staff or else they're not going to get anywhere. This kind of marketing isn't all that productive if you want to entice the twenty-something female into spending her 'less-than-a-man's-wage' on their products.

A Novel Ecstacy

Historical Edition - Bookporn

Oh god, I love this far too much for my own good. Why can't we have more people like this in the world?

iHate

An iPhone Waiter - Ars Technica

This I find amazingly cool in a strange sort of way. I mean really, waiting in line for an iPhone? Yes, I know it will become the coolest phone on the face of the planet when it's released. And yes, I'd like one too. But unlike the Wii or the Playstation 3, you only have some many things you can do with a phone. A music player? A photo viewer? Mobile net and e-mail access? Yes these are great items but I'm not sure that I'd want to wait in line for something like this. I'm an early adopter but the effort one has to put into being on the bleeding edge of tech ownership is too much for me. For an item that is supposed to make my life easier I don't think expending a great deal of energy to acquire said item really makes all that much sense.

An iPhone Waiter - Ars Technica

This I find amazingly cool in a strange sort of way. I mean really, waiting in line for an i

Weird Converter

Weird Converter


I think my mind just broke a little.

Stealth Cats and their Calls

Mobile Phones Attract Leopards - L'Inq

Oh god, I just had the best image of some rich white girl answering her phone in a store and then getting ambushed by giant cats. I'm going to laugh about that for a few days now.

Lindy Hop

Blame It On the Boogie - Andrew Sullivan
Lindy Hop - Wikipedia

I didn't know about Lindy Hop until the name-drop in one of Sullivan's posts (hence the wiki link). What I find amusing is that one of the more well-known lindy hop groups was in A Day at the Races, which is one of my favorite Marx Brothers movies ("No, you sap!"). I remember reading about Latin American dance and music styles and their deep connection to Africa through the slave trade. Tango and salsa are two kinds of dances that are intimately tied to Africa through the meeting of slaves late at night and during festivals to dance their old god dances. This is the kind of 'real' dance and music that interests me so much. While I love my polished and produced music, there's something about the rawness of this kind of music that you can't find anywhere else.

Particle Man

Why the Rumored Discovery of the Higgs Boson is Bad News for Particle Physics - Slate

I like the fact that scientists hope the $8 billion the EU is spending on the Large Hadron Collider doesn't produce any results. While the thought of the failure of the LHC resulting in a new particle accelerator the size of the solar system fills me with sci-fi glee, I do hope the LHC does find something. Whether it actually fills in the final element of the standard model is not my concern. Strangely, I actually find myself partially siding with the scientists who say that they hope the LHC finds something new or different. Breaking old theories is rather exciting because it means the start of something completely new. The shift in consciousness that such a break in theory would produce is incredibly enticing.

St. George Preserve Me

And thus ends another really shitty May. When I rule the West, I'm tossing out May from the calendar. From then on it will be know as Chaos Month where civilization closes up shop until the storms of the gods pass.

Rayguns for the Homeless

Handmade Steampunk Rayguns from the F/X Guys at Weta - Wired

One of these days I'm going to build myself a gun that shoots time.

Atomic Kitty

CIA Recruited Wireless Cat to Spy on Russians - L'Inq

I want one of these. I could take over a city with nothing but cats. Now if only I could use my cat to check my e-mail.

The Infancy of the Stars

Baby Stars Hatching in Orion's Head - Science Blog

Just the words alone have this beautiful ring to them--"baby stars hatching in Orion's head." It sounds perfectly mythological, like Athena and Zeus. It's stories like this one that inspire comic and sci-fi writers. You have new beings erupting into existence through pressure. You have a demi-god birthing the bringers of life out of his own head. New suns in their infancy, waiting to move into adulthood and gain their own planetary systems.

Hungry

I'm going to eat the world.

11 New Senses

Mixed Feelings - Wired

Grant Morrison wrote a fifth-week event for DC called DC One Million, wherein the characters from a supposed 'one millionth' issue of the series interacted with contemporary characters. What was so interesting though wasn't the characters themselves but the telling of new senses opening up to the human mind some eighty thousand years in the future. I've tried to think about what a new sense would be like but I keep translating any thought into an existing sense. What I try to do is nigh impossible for the human mind, to imagine something that has no previous frame of reference. We have trouble imagining a new sense because we rework any data of such a new sense into the framework of our old ones. How do you explain vision to a blind person, or sound to a deaf person? It's outside of their basic knowledge. They can only interpret that kind of information through their existing senses. But just imagine that there is phenomena out there which we can't sense right now but could in the future. God I love this stuff.

Seeing Red

Ceiling Height Can Affect How a Person Thinks, Feels, Acts - Science Daily

I have ten foot ceilings in my house and lots of windows in my room specifically. I like a lot of open space and my mind tends to think that way as well. To top it off, I consciously chose my current wall color (ruby red with a semi-gloss finish) as a representation of my mind. Not that I'm seeing red but that I want shiny fierce thoughts.

Offloading Your Brain

Shaping the Future - Charlie Stross

I'm being lazy and not reading the entirety of Stross's speech but thought it was an interesting tidbit nevertheless. The U.S. has long led the rest of the world in information trading. The idea that we could eventually carry around devices that are customized for our individual way of thinking is quite revolutionary. It's not so much that we could carry around that load of information but that we would have programs that understand how our brains work. I joke about being the back-up brain for a friend of mine, knowing what she is talking about even if she doesn't remember the exact words, but a device like this would become a constant back-up brain. We, as a species, have always found new tools to enhance our natural abilities but we are coming to a point where we are creating tools that enhance our minds in a very direct manner. I like this.

Informational Experience

Web 2.0 Distracts from 'Good Design' - BBC

Part of the problem with Web 2.0 is that there are many people out there who understand the fundamentals of user-generated content design but there are far more who don't understand how to present a web page that takes full advantage of the Web 2.0 idea. Customization is all well and good if it provides a good user experience but when the design is more focused on customization versus content delivery then the user will feel lost. However, I don't think the entire problem rests with web design per se but also with the accustomed way users search and use content. Web 2.0 and the coming Web 3.0 revolution will, I think, produce a series of new ways users interact with content. But this requires as much a change in user perception as it does web design. A lot of site will get this wrong and a lot of users will misunderstand the design. My fear is that if too many sites offer poor designs then users will become disinclined to adopt new search and content manipulation techniques. Web 2.0 and 3.0 have a lot of potential to radically change the way people think about information. But if web designers don't take user perceptions into account then the whole thing could fall flat. If done wrong, Web 2.0 will become just another lost opportunity and I do not want to see this happen.

The Rebel

Revolt on the Way? - Bradford Plummer, The Plank

I think the month of September will prove spectacularly interesting. If the generals on the ground are beginning to realize they can actually ask for what they need then you might have a growing noise coming out of Iraq that reinforces the perception that the war is lost. It's not that I believe the general can't pull a victory out, it's simply that I don't believe the Bush administration will put the necessary resources into such a victory. To ask more from the American public at this point is inviting active revolt.

Comment Abuse

Enabling Hate-Mongers - Tom Gruisich, WaPo

Online anonymity is an interesting issue for the moment. I've noticed a rise in the calls for people to use their real names on message boards and blog comments in recent months. Gruisich here seems to get some of the balancing act that board moderators and bloggers are wrangling with. How does one deal with trolls, sock-puppetry and other forms of comment abuse? Calling for the use of real names is one means but I don't think it is a universal solution. What I think we will see in the future is a informal segregation of boards between those who allow anonymous posters and those who request the use of real names. Personally, I don't see a problem with such an arrangement. I continue to use the analogy of the English coffeehouses of the seventeenth century and their use of posted rules. Each coffeehouse would have their own set of rules that those who entered the coffeehouse had to obey. No one was really prevented from going to as many coffeehouses at they wanted to and if the conversation in one place was dull then they could move on. I think what we will see with the issue of abusive comments is the marketplace of ideas come into full effect. Those moderators who are too persnickety will chase off most commentators while those who hardly moderate at all will invite only the worst of the worst. The market will shift most people into a sort of middle ground while the fringes will still exist and still cater to an extreme element. No one gets locked out but you see a shifting of voices that flattens out the shrill extremes while accentuating the measured center. I don't think I will have a problem with this.

Contradictory Nature

After reading Camus' The Rebel many years ago I was struck by the contradictory balance Camus imposes on the concepts of justice and freedom. Camus was arguing that no one could legitimize murder and used the examples of revolutionaries and rebels to illustrate his point. Particularly with the French Revolution, murder was frequently employed in the name of preservation of the state. Absolute justice is what Camus called it. At the same time, Camus points to the surrealists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to note how absolute freedom leads to the same murderous result. At either extreme you have an absolute Yes or an absolute No. For the man who says Yes to everything he cannot then deny someone the right to murder. For the man who says No to everything murder becomes the best means to ensure that all laws are followed. Of course, Camus doesn't buy any of this. Instead, Camus argues that either extreme leads to a moral and logical fallacy. To say Yes or No to everything is to say its opposite as well. It's a tautology where Yes=No and No=Yes because there isn't any discernible difference between the two at that point. You need the ability to say Yes or No. In other words, you need a value system.
With the concepts of justice and freedom, Camus argues that you must maintain both, for freedom without justice is anarchy where everything is permitted and justice without freedom is tyranny where nothing is permitted. It's this contradictory balance that I find fascinating. For the human condition, this contradiction is one of those subtle ways that I believe one can witness the divine. I don't believe that nature or physics is contradictory. And yet, we have minds that continually uncover contradictions. Our minds hold both rational and irrational thoughts, our lives are filled with logical and illogical aspects, and we are still able to get up in the morning. For physics, there are instances of apparent contradictions but I believe this is simply an example of where our minds can't quite cope with the concept. The wave-particle duality of light, the Schrödinger's Cat question, the very idea of virtual particles, all of these examples are instances of apparent contradictions but they do have rules and logic.
The whole point of these apparent contradictions, the contradictory balance that Camus strikes between freedom and justice, is that our minds can only deal with so much. My personal belief is that such contradictions are necessary in the Wittgensteinian sense of showing the fly the way out of the flybottle. They are ways to break us out of our natural human logic and see something differently.

Mind Bullets

I don't think I've ever had such an intense meditation session. This is what I get for incorporating sigils into my focus. I'm dizzy, sweating, and strangely empowered but relaxed. Like a lion lounging. I've never been able to stop seeing with my eyes but this time I was able to. The effort it took for me to see with my mind instead of my eyes was surprising. I think I can kill with my mind now.

First Position

Rethinking The War, Ctd - Andrew Sullivan

The reader here makes a good point relating to Sullivan's original premise of the war on terror. What I'm more concerned with is not an attack using any sort of mass destruction weapon but one that relies on relatively low-tech elements. There is enough potential among the chemical and industrial infrastructure in America to create a devastating attack. All it takes is the clever use of simple tools. It's what I call 'Oak Cliff engineering' in that you take simple parts and assemble them into a working whole through inventive use. This is what modern terrorism is amazingly good at. While we do need to maintain our efforts to keep WMDs out of the hands of terrorist groups, I think we would be remiss if we ignored the surprisingly simple ways in which an attack could occur. What this requires is getting into the minds of the terrorist, not necessarily outthinking them but looking at things the way they would. Beyond that all we can do is maintain a degree of vigilance.

No CD for You!

Used CDs? - Ars Technica

This is absolutely ridiculous. I frequently sell back old cds that I won't listen to anymore and are taking up space in my collection. It isn't that I necessarily want the cash, although that is a perk of the deal, but I want to put that music back into circulation for someone else to buy it. The used cd store is also a place to find cds that have long gone out of print and won't see another pressing for the foreseeable future. But what these states here have done is anathema to such pleasantries. Just makes me sick.

Slow Motion Sexual Relief

Please Stop Doing That to the Cat - Second Life Sketches, Warren Ellis

I had forgotten that Ellis was writing a column for Reuters but now I have found it and blissful happiness abounds. I do like the points he makes about how the sex in Second Life will eventually get the whole things in trouble (if you don't believe me then talk to the Belgian police). Ellis is no prude but he is looking out for the online community by noting the dangers of acting without any regard for propriety whatsoever.

Barak the Magic Negro

Classy Obama - Eve Fairbanks

While complete wrong in many many ways, I must admit that I'm happy something like this can go on in America. Still, how long before Sharpton finally gets someone like Limbaugh off the air for good? That would be a blessing.

Clitorial Lovin'

Sex Toy = Military Threat - The Danger Room

Wow, I'm amazed on many levels by this.

It's In the Array

DARPA Studies Launching Satellites in Pieces - DefenseNews.com

What I find interesting in a proposal like this is the potential for space terrorism. Say you have a satellite array in orbit and all someone needs is a booster that will deliver a small package into space. The package doesn't have to weigh that much since whatever you are launching is not intended to do a great deal of work. The launch occurs but what can anyone do about it at that point? The package logs itself into the satellite array and starts broadcasting video or attempts to hack into government systems (scary thought, hack into nuclear agencies). You, as the operator of the array, are left with few choices such as shutting down the array, reprogramming the whole damn thing or taking potshots with missiles or lasers at the array in hope of hitting the viral component. No matter what you do, it will take some time and any video broadcast will have aired. All a space terrorist would need is a few minutes to broadcast or gain access into whatever network it wanted. I see future movies about this.

Condoms for Everyone!

Marital Sex Biggest HIV Risk for Women Around the World - Science Blog

This actually strikes me as not all that surprising. The biggest problem with HIV in Africa isn't that women are sleeping with multiple partners but that husbands are. The issue is marital infidelity and how men in much more macho cultures are given tacit permission to seek sex outside of marriage. So in one report you have the conjoining of both women's rights and health issues. On top of that you have the renewal of the call for men to use condoms. It's an interesting issue where you can either have a culture that accepts infidelity but promotes the use of condoms or you promote women's rights and ditch the condoms. Personally, I prefer both as men need to learn some sexual responsibility while women should have greater rights to go out and divorce the cheating bastard if they see fit.

A Little Phobia for You

Chicken-eating Spider - Boing Boing

Okay, this just freak my shit right the fuck out. Do not like spiders.

The Alcoholic's War

Re-Thinking the War I - Andrew Sullivan

This is a good piece of re-evaluation, or at least the start of it. But in reading it I was reminded of something I concluded not long after all the pundit-speak about giving the surge a chance. I could only think of it as an alcoholic's promise. That one last chance the alcoholic begs for, even though we know the promise, while well intentioned, is false. To the alcoholic, there will always be that one more chance. Not to say that the alcoholic should simply give up, or that we should simply give up, but the chances of success are mighty slim and putting too much stock in such a promise is almost foolhardy. Until the alcoholic changes the way he looks at things, until we change the way we look at the war, we will not succeed. The problems we created will not be solved with the same mindset that created the problems in the first place. We are not superheroes, we cannot simply 'will' our way to victory. While having a strong will is important, will alone will not conjure up victory. It only gives us the strength to do the hard work necessary.

On the Bleeding Edge

New Ideas - Matt Yglesias

I don't necessarily support John Edwards as a president but, as Yglesias points out, he does have a decent grasp of what we need to do to tackle poverty. But the bigger issue for me here is not Edward's ideas on poverty but the point that Yglesias makes on the different between new ideas and good ideas. While the newest, freshest ideas make for great campaign promises, they rarely prove workable. What Edwards has done here is take some ideas that have shown promise in the past, or have actually worked in the past, and built an anti-poverty platform around them. This is good planning and thought on the part of the Edwards campaign. There's nothing wrong with picking up on old ideas so long as the ideas work. Just the same, there isn't anything wrong with new ideas either, so long as they work as well. Good governance doesn't have to rely on being first among ideas but being the best among ideas.

The New French Revolution

Sarkozy Takes French Presidency - BBC

This is just sad, really. Royal was my political girlfriend. I was going to have her babies. Lots and lots of little socialist babies.

28%

Newsweek Poll, 5 May, 2007 - MSNBC

It's only one poll and Pollster's rating average has President Bush at 34% and rising, but this still is an amazing number to consider. What happens when a president loses all support from the general public beyond the hardline base? As Josh Marshall likes to point out constantly, the public is not behind the president despite the attempts by the media to play it the other way.

You're a Woman, I'm a Machine

Virtual Rape is Traumatic, but is it a Crime? - Wired

I'm coming from a male perspective so the issue of rape is more of an abstract thing that a potential reality for me (although I do know that rape can happen to men too). So for me the issue is more about civil liberties and personal dignity than anything else. What the idea of online rape represents for me is another example of the anonymity of the internet allowing people to act in ways they never would have in public. Yet, the psychological effects are very real and with the deep psychological scars that rape causes it is too much of a stretch to say that online rape is just as traumatic as physical rape? If so, then shouldn't the laws extend to criminalize online rape in the same way as physical rape?

DIY Process

Just a Part of the Network - WaPo

I think what is so interesting in the transformation of the PC into a tech hub is the atomization of the computer itself. I've built and rebuilt my own computer multiple times over the last seven years. The selling point for me is the ability to upgrade only what I need for the tech devices I need. Need more USB hubs? Buy a USB card. Need a better graphics card for photos? Buy the new card. The key for me is the motherboard/cpu/memory platform. You can't buy one generally without buying all the rest. What I pivot my decision on is whether the platform will serve my tech needs for the next few years. More to the point, I have to decide what kind of tech I will want for my desktop. CD burning, DVD burning, music, Ipods, cellphones, photos, whatever. The whole point is maintaining my ability to fully utilize whatever comes along on the internet or in the general tech world.

When Funny isn't Funny

Naked Man Superglued to Exercise Bike - Reuters

When I first saw the headline I was prepared to for something hilarious but this is actually pretty sad.

Doth-iness

A Blog Doth Not a Journalist Make - The Inquirer

In the debate between blogging and journalism it is sentiments like this one that I give a good deal of credence to. The greatest obstacle to genuinely good blogging is the lack of editorial and economic pressures on any blog writer. While the free-wheeling nature of blogging has its own natural high, the considered, calculated articles and op-ed pieces one reads in proper journalism has far more longevity. This is the core of the debate. Blogs are by nature of-the-moment. Newspapers need something that will stand the test of time and a quickly written piece with little authorial control does not do the job. Even this blog doesn't stand up to the journalistic standards of a George Will or Frank Rich piece. And it's not supposed to. While I may argue that I have some sense of objectivity it's not crucial to anything that I might write. A blog is simply the opinion of someone, usually someone you don't know, who is accountable to no one and nothing. While that makes for some fun for the blogger, it usually doesn't lead to the best journalism out there.

Reaganomics

Even Think Tank People Play Debate Drinking Games - Wonkette

Absolutely brilliant. After reading all the articles on how the GOP is looking for the next Reagan to save them and how much such sentiments mirror the Democrats efforts to find the next JFK, it's refreshing to hear someone make light of it all. “'If this debate were a drinking game, and you had to imbibe every time you hear the word ‘Reagan,’ you would pass out before the closing remarks,' predicted Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University." This is exactly what is wrong with the GOP right now. If they have to go looking for the next great president in the mold of some past president then they won't find it. Reagan wasn't Reagan until he became president.

Attorneygate, Category 2

Monica Gooding's Lawyers - TPM

So it's tidbits like this that drive the whole Attorneygate storyline. Gooding is being smacked with a Justice department investigation while receiving immunity for any incriminating testimony she might give to the House Judiciary committee. It's a perfect moment for the whole damn storm of a story to come blowing in. Pay attention people, it only gets better from here on.

Golem

I Want It All - Spencer Ackerman

What's notable about Ackerman's post here is the growing pressure inside Iraq to impose a quasi-strongman. The idea of 'reconciliation' is a bit laughable if you didn't have to look past so many bodies. Still, any effort for reconciliation will have to deal with the fact that the man who can get the Shiites to calm down will only infuriate the Sunnis, and vise versa. What we may need is a Kurd who won't instantly split Kurdistan off from the rest of the country. Either way, reconciliation at this point is going to come with a body count, what matters morally is how high of a body count we are prepared to deal with to get what we want out of Iraq.

Kirchik and Stupidity, An Ode

Take That Anti-War Liberals! - Matt Yglesias

I do so love the line that Arabs and Muslims are incapable of achieving a truly democratic society. Not in the least because the EU is currently trying to work Turkey into their organization. No, what bothers me the most the idea that a simply military cue will bring about the 'flowering' of democracy. We've had two instances in the last sixty years where a military toppling of the government has ended with stable, lasting democracies. But in both instances, in Japan and Germany in 1945, we imposed a strongman to hold things together until the newly installed governments could get on their feet. We didn't just blow shit up and then blame them for the mess.

Luke's Binoculars

Binoculars that Tap the Brain - The Danger Room

And to add to the idea of plugging the brain into something comes DARPA with their brain-interfacing binoculars. Utilizing research into the way the eyes and the brain interact, these binoculars highlight sensory data that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the conscious mind. For the purposes of war this kind of technology would alert soldiers to oncoming threats that previously they would not have seen or paid attention to. This is another example of using a tool to offload our sensory information and present it in a new way. I love it.

The Atomic Yogi

Quantum Tantra - Warren Ellis

"Modern physics is a fully erect science. Quantum tantra is physics on all fours."

This sounds a little too granola for me but hey, it's 'physics on all fours' which gets me going. In some ways it sounds like the kind of chaos magic Grant Morrison spins out, what with it's twisting of the world using organic means. The idea seems to be that we can tap our brains into some sort of cosmic server of other minds. Don't know if I necessarily believe that but the idea is interesting enough. My question then is, what happens when the 'cosmic server' becomes sentient?

The Statist Mindset of Terrorist Activities

Perle's Comments to Tenet: True or False? - The Danger Room

My concern is not with Perle's comment necessarily but the mindset behind them. The belief that the only way an attack like 9/11 could have occurred was with government support, whoever that government may be, is a holdover of the old belief that systematic genocide could only occur through state sanction and action. Now it is well know that the government of Afghanistan at the time did support Al Queda but their government was both rather small and ineffectual in affecting world politics. The most important thing the Taliban provided was the space and freedom to train and organize. A government like Saddam's Iraq could have provided such aid itself but Saddam didn't pull the trigger anymore than the Taliban did. Certainly the U.S. should move against those states that tacitly support terrorism through their inaction against terrorist groups but to say that the host nation bears the same responsibility is pushing the envelope some, to say the least. It's a little different to say the Taliban is the same as a nation such as Iran who has known financial and military ties to Palestinian terrorist groups. In one instance you have a nation who is actively funding and training a terrorist group using government means while in the other you have a nation who isn't doing anything to prevent it. In the world of foreign policies and foreign affairs you cannot treat other countries like an opposition party. It simply doesn't work. You can't just throw some pissant country against the wall and expect everyone to suddenly fall into line. You take down the biggest motherfucker on the block then people will respect you.

Webb's Web

Senator Webb on The Iraq War Bill - TPM

See, this is the thing, Sen. Webb can make the distinction between occupation and war yet few, if any, of the other pundits have caught up with the language. What we have in Iraq is an occupation and, despite all our wishing otherwise, acts like an occupation. The best way we can deal with the insurgency and the militias is to treat ourselves like occupiers and do the damn thing right. I wasn't in favor of this war and I haven't changed my mind yet but still, if you're going to do it then do it well. Wars are important things and performing poorly in a war reflects in world opinion and, more importantly, in the relations between nations. It doesn't matter what the press says or how the administration spins it. What matters is how other nations will treat us afterwards, particularly when we want something from them. We put ourselves in a weaker position due to poor performance. And the kicker is that it isn't the soldiers fault or even the generals per se. It has always been the fault of the civilian leadership.

Meta Meta

Metadata as a 'filing system' - Nick Santilli, Lifehacker

I find this kind of use of metatagging as an intriguing direction OS makers could move in. The intuitiveness of the design is appealing in the era of portable multimedia players, computers and devices. The ability to maneuver data in a way that makes sense to the human mind is something of a holy grail for UI designers. This is what the whole Web 2.0 concept is all about.

The Good Prince

Smells Like Team Spirit - Matt Yglesias

Yglesias does have a point here. A good conservative or a good liberal should tend to stick with other conservatives or liberals. That is to say, bucking the ideology doesn't seem to enhance the solidarity of the ideological group. However, if your purpose were to improve the ideology then bucking the trend is exactly what you should do. More to the point, an ideology cannot stay static, it must move with the times and the culture. Certainly there are aspects of any ideology that can apply to almost any period of time but one should worry about which aspects those are. If they last then they last, otherwise you are attempt to graft an ideology of a different time onto the modern world and that just doesn't work too well. Ideological purity does have its advantages but standing the test of time is not one of them. So the division is really between the good conservative or liberal and the person or ideas good for conservativism or liberalism.

The IRS and Federal Contractors

Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes - Thomas Williams, Truthout (via The Danger Room)

I distinctly remember a post by Matt Yglesias over the issue of federal contractors and the worst of both worlds aspect of the federal contracting system. The basic idea is that private companies can do a government job better and with a lower cost since the laws of free market economics come into play. However, what we have here is another instance where federal contractors are significantly insulated from the free market by the contracting system. So you end up with companies that, due to insufficient oversight and a lack of economic pressures, are slow in paying taxes, providing the requested products and generally mismanaging the whole damn thing. I still believe in the free market, although I don't hold to the ideal of the 'invisible hand' anymore than I hold to the idea that communism can work. But this system as is has left us with huge and growing debts while providing substandard services and products, or not providing them at all. What we need is reform of course, but how we can achieve true reform is a question I'm not able to answer at this time. The difficulty lies in the nature of the lobbying system and how legislation is passed.

Dead Hookers, Live Boys

DC Madam - TPM

It's disappointing that the Hookergate scandal of last spring didn't take off the way it should have. But now we get Hookergate part two with DC Madam and the ex-head of the Foreign Aid department. Nothing better than a dead hooker or a live boy for politics.

Dead Horse College

A World of Diplomas - Ezra Klein

"This demonstrates how rigid the credentialing mentality has become in higher education, trumping three decades of undisputed good work. It wasn't always that way. When Ludwig Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge in 1929, they simply accepted his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as a doctoral thesis. The knew that forcing him to go through a formal course of study to earn a credential would be absurd. They were acting in their role as certifiers of learning, which is (see the post below) not necessarily the same thing as being a provider of learning."

Not to beat a dead horse, but I thought this quote of Kevin Carey via Ezra Klein deserves some notice, not least because of its mention of my favorite philosopher Wittgenstein. The point is that since Wittgenstein had already proven himself he didn't need classroom education. The purpose of college education is to further an already fruitful mind, not simply certify this person for a particular set of jobs. But the way college degrees are treated it has become the high school degree of thirty years ago. Now graduate school has become the arena for pushing the mind further while undergraduate work has become an extension of high school.

Elitism of Education

Creditialism - Matt Yglesias

Now I have two parents who don't hold college degrees and they have done fairly well for themselves. My grandfather made to the ninth grade and then went to work. College degrees are not the be-all, end-all of creditials. I have two bachelors and one master's degrees but that doesn't mean squat when it comes to jewelry work. And I have many friends who never went to college but are doing well for themselves. They don't see a need for it.
But the way most education systems are set up now, college is the ultimate goal. I think this is wrong. There are some kids who simply don't belong in college. Whether it's due to college not being their thing, college not being the place they can learn or, and sit down before you read this, they simply don't have the aptitude for it. And this, I think, is the key for why college has taken this glorified place in American minds. We are afraid of telling someone that they are not smart enough for college. The problem is, there are people not smart enough for college. Not to say they aren't smart but that their intelligence doesn't work on the college level. They can do a lot of other things very well but taking college exams, writing papers or conducting lab experiements is not one of them.
Now I'm hesistant to say that we should introduce a tracking system ala Japan and England. But we might at least consider it instead of continuing the lie that all minds are equal. The key here is ensuring that everyone has equal access to quality education, but education that will actually help them once out of school.

Blame Blame

How to Stop Future Massacres - Adam Kushner

A little late to the game on this sure, but considering the growing chorus of people insane enough to think that arming students and teachers will somehow prevent another massacre on a college campus, I thought I might say a few words. First, somehow the thought of arming a group of people who we have trouble letting drive doesn't seem like a winning idea. Sure, technically a college student is of legal age but considering how many car accidents happen to eighteen-year-olds I don't think throwing guns at them is a smashing idea. Second, arming teachers doesn't seem like a hot idea either since most teachers generally abhor violence and more than a few are far too absent-minded to be allow around firearms. Imagine your college philosophy professor or calculus teacher packing heat and then ask yourself if you feel any safer? Third, as my mother keenly pointed out, events like the Virgina Tech massacre are akin to tornadoes or hurricanes. They're acts of God and not something you really can prepare for. And even if you could, all you would succeed in doing is preventing a minuscule number of deaths when binge drinking and suicide are still the most likely ways a college student will die.
None of this is to mitigate the tragedy of the past week because it was a tragedy. But, as Andrew Sullivan pointed out, if this happened every other day then you would be living in Baghdad. They're both tragedies but life in America makes events like Virgina Tech rare and not something we should be overly concerned about. All it does tell us is that we should look out for each other a little more, but we didn't need the deaths of thirty people to tell us that.

To the West and Avalon

The World According to Richard Perle - The Danger Room

"The great tragedy of Perle is that like the Hollywood leftists who defended communism -- ignoring brutalities and crimes committed against the innocent -- Perle, too, glosses over the destruction wrought from a misguided theory that now equates "Islamo-fascism" with Soviet communism. Yes, Perle's nemeses, the Hollywood elite of the 1950s, were wrong about the Soviet Union, but that doesn't make Perle right about the Middle East."

This is what happens when you have someone still attached to the grand narrative of the West. Perle still believes in a sort of teleological history of the West that will see ever increasing progress and prosperity. The West becomes something of an end to itself in this narrative, from the Greeks to today's post-Cold War world. Everything was meant to happen in Perle's mind because we were meant to show the world how things were done. It's a little like the 'shining city on the hill' metaphor in that while it can inspire people to do great things it can also create the false assumption that we need not improve ourselves and any improvement that does happen is an act of God, not man. You can see it in the neo-conservative reaction to the failures in Iraq, the blaming of the Iraqis for being 'uncivilized' and 'incapable' of enjoying democracy. Of course, the West shares no blame for such failures because the West is ever-perfect, ever-perfecting.

Cup o' Greg

Damascus: Detente Talk of the Town; Washington: Same Ol' Crapola - Greg Djerejian

I love how deftly Djerejian is able to take down someone like Liz Cheney. While wrapping it in a call for more realpolitik, Djerejian notes the 'sentimentality' of Cheney's piece in the Washington Post. This is exactly the reason why such people should not have a hand in foreign policy. Sometime you have to make deals with the devil in foreign affairs and sometimes those deals will come back to bite you in the ass. The funding of Bin Laden during the 80s is a notable example but should not detract from the larger point. Dealing with Damascus will not yield the pony some in the administration are still looking for. But it might bring Israel and Syria to the table while slowly nullifying Hezbollah's power in Lebanon. Moreover, it might pull Syria further away from Iran, thus isolating Iran even more. Syria doesn't have quite the same track record that Iran does and the weak leadership in Damascus seems ripe for diplomatic picking. But we'll never know that unless we make some attempt at talking to Syria.

That Sliding Scale

Presidential Approval Rating - Pollster.com

Perhaps because there's nothing really interesting about a flatlined polling number but no one seems to want to talk about the president's tepid approval rating. Hovering around 34% for the last two months is not a sign of a president who is responding to the American public. After the last two months of the 'surge' in Iraq and the looming showdown over military spending one would expect to see at least a little bump in the polls. But, to be crass for a moment, I would think that the shootings at Virgina tech would give the president some poll relief.

The Non-story Story

New "Chemical Weapon" in Iraq? Nope - The Danger Room

This really is my new favorite blog for the moment. While generally centerist they do take pride in knocking down the hyperventilating of the more right-wing blogs like RedState. This article is another fine example of these guys looking at a news story that touts some big revelation and simply saying, "Yeah, so?" With the science and expertise behind them, they seem to know what's worth a story and what's not.

We Put the 'Jew' in 'Jewelry'

When I get in Trouble with Language, the Fate of the World is What's at Stake - Spencer Ackerman
Tommy Thompson - Matt Yglesias

Now I'm inclined to believe Yglesias's assessment that Gen. Thompson belongs in the moron category versus the I-hate-Jews category. No one can makes comments like that openly and honestly to a group of Jews and Israelis if they actually hate them. Haters are a little more guarded than that. Still, this was a man who achieved a high rank in our military and now is running for president. Something tells me that his candidacy won't last too much longer. This incident reminds me of, well, just about all of Blazing Saddles. While I imagine it will make a great YouTube segment I doubt it will help Republican self-image any.

The Buzz about Buzz

Mobile Phones Kill Bees - L'inq

I remember reading an article in the Washington Post about two months ago that was on the seeming collapse of bee colonies in the southwest. No one could really explain it except to say that bees were losing their way and not making it back to the hive. Apparently, and I didn't know this until I read the article, bees play an important role in pollinating various crops and there are companies that cart hives around to farmers as a service. So a large portion of our crops depend on bees to keep up the pollination.

The Green Machine

The Green Imperative - Andrew Sullivan

The idea of a carbon tax and a gas tax I think are the best ways of going about weening the American public off of petroleum. Matt Yglesias made a salient point that a carbon tax would, in a way, act as a subsidy for green energies as it would make green energy more enticing as a consumer energy source. A gas tax would go a long way to pushing the auto industry to produce higher mileage cars, trucks and SUVs. Something similar was done back in the 70s and the monies earned off the tax was used to help lower-income families purchase higher mileage cars as well as off-set the higher gas price through a income-tax credit. With the auto industry already moving in this direction, a gas tax would only spur more innovation from the market without imposing a government-laden solution. The linchpin of any such effort though is the oil industry itself. I've found myself saying more often lately that any oil giant worth its salt would do well to look into alternative fuels and I still think that is true. The problem is how do you turn an industry that generally looks at alternative fuels with disdain into a friend of green energy?
While I tend to look at green energy in primarily an environmental way I do think that the national security aspect is important and an excellent tactic to garner support from people who would normally attack such proposals. By denying Middle Eastern nations oil money the U.S. could leverage its position more effectively. The whole goal of such an effort is to push those nations like Iran who are generally antagonistic to U.S. interests into a position where the U.S. is a potential ally in maintaining their prestige and influence in the region. The idea is to move nations about without resorting to military solutions.

Dirty Pool

Why I Declined to Serve - John J. Sheehan, WaPo

This is a perfect example of the difficulty the Bush administration has had in getting traction on any issue it takes aim at. The problem isn't that the administration is oblivious to reality but that there are too many competing interests and agendas to coherently approach reality. It really is more of a personnel issue than anything else. Coherency in strategic approach is essential, particularly in the realm of foreign policy. But from what I have read and heard there are two groups going head to head consisting of people like Secretaries Rice, Paulson and Gates going against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove and the president himself. While I have not been the biggest supporter of Sec. Rice (and if you read Greg Djerejian's blog you will see why) I do think that she is on the side of the angels in this with her attempts at shuttle diplomacy. Secs. Gates and Paulson seem to get it as well in their efforts to curtail Iran's financial dealings and reasserting the U.S.'s moral superiority. But for all of their efforts they still have the problem of the influence that the 'more rubble, less trouble' crowd has in the White House. To attempt to assign a new position to oversee both wars in Afghanistan and Iraq when you have such incoherency is troubling at best and a sign of folly at worst.

Imus the Amazing Whitey

The Racial "Double Standard" - Andrew Sullivan

I'm not particularly fond of Don Imus and the past week of 'all Imus, all the time' has gone beyond the grating point. After arguing about it for nearly an hour with my dad I'm quite ready to break large and expensive items. But Sullivan here captures some of what I'm angry about with the defenders of Imus. The biggest issue with the whole Imus affair is tied to the language-game and how the meaning of words is constructed. Words themselves have no inherent meaning. That meaning is provided by us. So, that is to say, words do have meaning but they mean different things to different people because we provide that meaning. The idea of some sort of racial double standard goes against the nature of language as certain words have a certain meaning to certain people, or in this case, races. For me, it's not simply an issue of race but of culture. Not all black Americans agree that firing Imus was the right thing to do whereas not all white Americans believe that what Imus said was simply a stupid joke. But what gets some people into a tiff is the idea that the rappers and r&b singers of black America somehow get a pass on making seemingly racist and sexist comments while Imus has his head handed to him.
One argument that I've heard is that since Imus is a shock-jock it's simply par for the course that he would make such comments. It's part of his shtick after all. But the same people who make that argument forget to carry the same understanding over to the rappers. Rap is filled with negative comments towards women and it's simply par for the course for a rapper to say those things. But that still gets into the issue of a double standard and I don't see it as a double standard but different standards for different cultures.
The problem is that white culture is the dominant culture so it is expected for the things we see on tv, hear on the radio and read in magazines to display an image of whiteness. It's a question of beauty. What white find beautiful in women is straight hair, clean skin and the weakness of femininity. This even applies to the black women we see in the media with their light brown skin, fair hair and respectable attitude. The black women of the Rutgers team do not fit with the image of white beauty with their tattoos, 'nappy' hair and tough attitude. When someone like Imus makes the comments he did it is not simply to rip on them but to remind a primarily white audience why the Rutgers women are different. They are dirty, loose women who do not deserve the honors they have received.
Within black culture the use of words like 'ho' and 'nappy' are not necessarily meant to show how some people are different. While the sexism of the term 'ho' tends to remain the same between cultures the term 'nappy' does not and is even a term of pride for some. The problem with the term 'ho' and its usage in rap music is that black culture is not the primary purchaser of rap albums. Instead it is white middle class males who propel rap artists to present this image of the 'gangsta' lifestyle. That some blacks perpetuate this image is simply another example of white cultural dominance.
What is most disappointing about the whole Imus affair is that while we have an opportunity to actually discuss race relations in America there are those who seek to use this incident to further their political and cultural agendas. Between Al Sharpton and the right-wing media all we will hear is this noise about how the blacks don't understand and the whites don't understand but nothing about how whites and blacks might find a way to talk about this. The Reverend Sharpton gets to play 'protector of black culture' by pointing to people like Rush Limbaugh and saying "See, Whitey doesn't understand, but I do and I will defend you." So all we get is another moment where white could have seen the light but because of the noise-makers of the so-called black leaders and the right-wing whiteys we lose. Fuck I want a drink.

Surge Merge

Surge Arithmetic - Kevin Drum, Washington Monthly

Via Andrew Sullivan comes a bit about the finagling of troop numbers to maintain the surge. I don't like it personally, but that's because I have two cousins in the Marines, one who just got home from Anbar province, and his wife who just had her fourth kid. Really, why do they have to send them? Can't they find some more 18-year-olds?

Uranium Workers of the World Unite!

Iran "Industrial" Nukes: Yawn - The Danger Room

So apparently the idea that Iran has the capabilities for industrial-scale production of reactor and bomb quality uranium is less than it seems. Call me unsurprised. What I'm more interested in is the few reports I have heard concerning Iran's monetary situation. If Iran is steadily being squeezed by the West financially then we might see the pro-western population, sated with their western products, start to squeeze the government in return. Either way, I think the financial sanctions will have more of an impact than any sort of rhetoric concerning Iran's 'proper' place in the world. Things like Iran's announcement of 'industrial' production of uranium doesn't come as much of a surprise when you consider Iran's need to look tough in the face of such sanctions. The capture of those fifteen British sailors can be considered in the same light. What all this means, I think, is that Iran is feeling increasingly isolated and wants a serious confrontation with the leaders of the U.S., who seem to want such a confrontation despite our inability to actually do anything about it militarily.

Dream Whip Pie

They ate the last of the dream whip pie. I have to wait until Easter of next year before I get that pie again. Screw family, screw Zombie Jesus, Easter is all about that pie. I guess this means I have to kill another son of God to get another Easter on the calendar.

An Oversight

Congress Nudges an FCC on Hold - WaPo

See, this is why a little oversight is a good thing. Now, I might not necessarily approve of all the actions of the Democratic leadership in Congress but if they can get the federal agencies to act in the way they are supposed to act then I say more please.

The Article

Hostage Letter Written by Tehran - The Danger Room

What interests me here is the appearance of a tit-for-tat kind of action on the part of the Iranians for U.S. actions against Iranian agents in Iraq. I don't have a problem with the U.S. acting against Iranian agents in Iraq since their presence there indicates something marginally underhanded at the very least. But this kind of call-and-response is troubling. I sincerely doubt that the U.S. would act militarily against Iran in the next two years but one never knows sometimes. Still, the hostage crisis is worrisome.

DDG-1000

Stormy Seas for Stealth Destroyer - The Danger Room

While the ship looks damn cool it sounds like a terrible design, particularly if the Navy is going to fill part of its fleet with this kind of ship. It seems that the design is prone to flooding and capsizing. A ship of this design might work well in coastal operations but even there I imagine there is some serious concern. I just wish the Navy would spend a little less money on these 'advanced' designs and concentrate on building ships that will have a role in the 21st century.

300mph

"Knight Rider" Ride Up for Sale - CBS News

It's a little disappointing that KITT isn't street legal. Then again, most of these TV cars aren't the most comfortable rides.

The Foreign Policy Trap

A Lazy Post - Matt Yglesias


I think Yglesias sort of gets it through his reprinting of Tony Smith's article on current foreign policy doctrine and the presidential race. They both note how difficult it is to produce a workable foreign policy doctrine. The myriad of competing interests in the U.S. alone make it a headache. But, and here's where I think Yglesias only sort of gets it, the problem is not with how difficult it is to produce a foreign policy doctrine but how difficult it is to get such a doctrine to work for more than a couple of years. Domestic politics tends to move slowly and so a domestic policy can last for a decade without need for serious revision. But foreign politics tends to move far more quickly. Simply put, a foreign policy doctrine cannot adapt quickly enough to remain relevant.
The solution I think, if there is a solution, is not to have a foreign policy doctrine but a foreign policy attitude. What a doctrine does is inform, if not dictate, the shape of the policy when, more often than not, good policy is shaped by events on the ground, so to speak. An attitude simply puts forth a direction for that policy to move in. Democracy-promotion is a reasonable example of this idea as one can promote democracy through their foreign policy without subjecting that policy to a series of required actions. The one instance where military action is required would not mean that military action is required in every instance. This is not to say that we should all bow before the alter of Realpolitik. Instead, it simply means that we must not rely solely on theory to determine our responses in foreign affairs.

Unity08

Growing a Third Party - David Broder, WaPo

While I appreciate the attention someone like Broder gives to the idea of a third party he's asking the wrong questions. He does note the selection process that Unity08 is presenting:
In a few weeks, they will outline provisional rules for their own nomination process, determining how candidates will qualify and how the voting will be conducted. The goal is to pick either a political independent for president or to form a ticket with both a Democrat and a Republican. Feedback will be welcomed before the rules are made final, he said.
But Broder doesn't dwell too long on this idea or even go into greater detail. Basically, the article is simply a cover piece of Unity08, bringing it into the public consciousness. Beyond that, there's nothing more. I would expect something better from a pundit like Broder but there you go.

My personal take is that something like Unity08 doesn't bring anything new to the table. Sure, it's a novel idea but it doesn't actually attempt to solve the problems of partisanship or getting genuine candidates elected. And to shoot for the biggest prize of all in politics, the presidency, when you have little to no public acceptance is absolute folly. It's a sure way to loose a lot of money and reinforce the idea that a viable third party will never be had. Now someone like Ross Perot was able to parlay his presidential run into a wider party. And the Greens and Libertarians have become mainstays on public ballots. But none of these parties are actually trying to change the way a party works. In order to make any serious gains as a third party you must break into the system first. But this is a Catch-22. If you can't get yourself elected then there's little chance of you changing the way the political system works. And if you can't change the way the system works then you can't open it up for future parties. So, the solution is, instead of breaking into the system, you must break the system. Aiming for the presidency first isn't the way to build a party, visibility perhaps, but not a party. To build a party you have to break into the local councils, state houses and school boards. The ways elections are held are primarily determined by the states, not the federal government. To break the system you have to start from the ground up. So something like Unity08 is a non-starter and while Broder doesn't come out and say it, the tone of his piece suggests that.

Equal Parts

Let's Dialogue - Matt Yglesias

I do so love the pundits who like to trot out the fascist analogies and predictions of an on-set of neo-fascism. It shows a basic misunderstanding of what fascism is and was. If anything, one would expect to see European Muslims, not Christian Europeans, mimicking fascism. Fascism, in one sense was a virulent form of ultra-nationalism. But even in that case you wouldn't see a true fascism arise. Fascism, at its heart, was the sacralization of politics, the turning of the state into God. It's not the same as a theocracy, even if in action they look similar. But that's like saying the common cold and Eboli are the same since they are both viruses that can kill us. Fascism does not equal communism or a theocratic government. Yes, all share elements of totalitarianism but that does not make them the same thing. It's this kind of fast-and-loose punditry that worries me since it represents a lack of appreciation for some of the most dangerous ideologies of our time.

Napping Our Way to Victory

Study: Napping Regularly Fights Heart Disease - WaPo

I've long touted the benefits of naps. I regularly take a nap after work and it has proven quite refreshing after a long day. More to the point, during the heady days of thesis writing naps were an essential part of the process as by the middle of the afternoon my brain was feeling a bit mushy. Just a twenty or thirty minute nap can keep you going for a lot longer than something like an energy drink can. It's just a matter of letting the body and the mind rest for a moment.

Zune Zune Zune

Jobs seeks online music shake up - BBC

This first popped up on the Inquirer a couple of days ago, but the BBC has picked up on this now. Apparently the recording industry is on the verge of ditching their DRM schemes as it has begun to drag down online music sales. After conducting a brief experiment where DRM-free mp3 files were placed against the standard DRM files it was found that consumers preferred the DRM-less ones. No big surprise there. But even the mere idea that the RIAA would consider dropping anti-piracy schemes like DRM is a surprise. What I find more amusing about this situation is all of the grief Microsoft has received over its own built-in DRM in Vista. For Microsoft, DRM has become something of a black hole as it has caused a lot of driver problems, particularly with companies like nVidia and ATI. From what I can gather, each new graphics card will need its own independent driver. This goes against the philosophy of both ATI and nVidia who have sought only unified drivers as a means of keeping everything simplified. Vista's DRM prevents the use of unified drivers and thus will slow the adoption of new graphics cards, thus pissing off the gamer class. When you piss off the gamers you lose a good chunk of the market.
In a roundabout way, the RIAA will have screwed Microsoft if they do ditch DRM. More importantly, they will have given Microsoft's most visible competitor, Apple, a huge victory in the music market. With Microsoft's own homegrown player Zune just now getting on its feet, such a move on the RIAA's part would throw their whole game plan into a top hat.

"Breathing Room"

I've heard a lot of talk over the last year or so about the apparent lack of options between political parties. And I've heard a great deal of dissatisfaction over the current state of our government from moderates, Republicans, Democrats, you name it. By now, I'm sure you know where this is all heading--we need a new political party. I want to start a new party, the Realist Party, in an attempt to do what our current political leaders won't do and what our current political machines can't do. I think a good part of the problem with our party system derives from the fact that the framers of the Constitution never incorporated a party system into the document. I'm not hear to asses fault for that omission, it was well over two hundred years ago and we've had more than a few big events occur in the interim. The party machines we have now are the product of decades of campaigning and governing and however they originally started is not the issue, or at least not the whole issue.
So the methods by which we elect candiates is broken. Not that our votes are not counted (barring some notable cases) and it isn't as if who gets elected radically differs from what the continuing stream of polling numbers say (again, barring a few notable exceptions). What I mean when I say that our electorial system is broken is that the way candiates are chosen, presented and campaigned is broken. Too often we see only the candiates who can win and rarely the candiate who should win. And too often do we see candidates who selectively target a certain audience in their district to the disadvantage of everyone else, whether that is their electorial base or special interest groups.
But I recoil at the suggestion that we should legislate our ways out of this mess. Even discounting the pratical obstacles of forcing those who's political careers depend on the current electorial system to change it, I don't think this is necessarily a legislative problem. What I am suggesting is that if a genuine third party can rise up based on the idea of presenting candidates who should get elected, holding elected officials to a higher standard of intelligence and conduct, and limiting the amount of vitrol spilled by the punditry then we can repair the electorial machine. While all of this sounds very high minded I do believe it is not only possible, but greatly desired.
What such a party takes to exist, much like any party or any business for that matter, is a lot of hard work, committed people and money. The difference lies in the purpose behind these elements. It isn't that the means are wrong or even the ends are wrong. It's the intent that is wrong. The purpose of most political machines is to get people elected, naturally. You can't hope to change things as an elected official if you can't become an elected official. But when the sole purpose of a political machine is to get people elected then you see the depth of our problem.
So what we are left with is the dilemma of any third party--how can you attain a sufficient number of people in elected office to effect real change without becoming just as broken as the other two major parties? I'm willing to take suggestions.

Lazarus

So I'm going to revive this blog after letting lie fallow for over a year. Check back here later to see what, if anything, I have done.

Opal City

Gaudi

Much like Robinson's "Starman" series, Lapham's "City of Crime" in Detective Comics and even Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere", Grant Morrison's uses the city itself as a key character in his writing. Not only does his current "Manhatten Guardian" series play up the idea of the city as a living breathing organism but his "The Invisibles" uses it as a vital theme to introduce the series. "Starman" in particular uses the city not just as a setting but as motive force for the actions of its characters. While "Starman" does share the sense of sheer awe over modern archtecture that "The Manhatten Guardian" does, both "City of Crime" and "Neverwhere" play around with the thriving city beneath the city as does "The Guardian" as well.

General Amnesty

Blah blah blah, required apology for absence, blah blah blah, too bored, too busy, too annoyed, blah blah blah, you'll all be against the wall when the revolution comes, blah blah blah

China, Japan and the Historical Narrative

Textbook

The protests and rioting in China is one of the clearest examples of the need for proper representation of history. While you cannot over-dramatize the events, no matter how harsh the event might be, you cannot marginalize or mitigate the event either. The Japan that produced such horrors as the 'rape of Nanking' is not the same Japan of today. Even so, recognition of one's past is the only way to prevent repeating that past. The difficulty, especially in the case of grade school textbooks, is in how the meaning of the event is conveyed. History is as much a narrative as any novel, the only difference being that historical narrative is based in evidence. But the meaning and impact of that evidence is a part of the narrative. When the evidence is given little attention or otherwise shuffled off to the side, the meaning is changed. Our own past of action against the Native Americans is representative of such marginalization in history.

Genres

Sin City

It's hard to get people, especially adults, to understand that comic books can be more than just four-color superheros and pirate tales. While most of the market is still dominated by the superheros there are many other tales that don't feature brightly-clothed and moralistic heroes as the main characters. Frank Miller started out in superhero comics with Daredevil and Batman and after making his mark on the field he moved on to tell a story that he always wanted to write. Neil Gaiman was allowed to write a comic book that has become a highlight for those, like me, who argue that comics are a genuine and worthwhile literary genre. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Brian Vaughan and others all represent comic writers who both can write a good superhero tale as well as stories that go well beyond that sub-genre.