Doubling Down on Crazy

Romney failed to condemn forcefully and sever all ties with the two quasi-pro-rape senators at a critical time when he was trying to court women. His choice of a running mate further reinforced his suspect credentials when it came to women.

He also ran a very anti-science campaign, alienating anyone who felt strongly about the possible dangers of climate change and the need for a strong space program, and lampooned Newt Gingrich, a member of his own party when he proposed a vigorous space program, violating Reagan’s dictum of speaking no ill of a Republican, while simultaneously backing away from the strategy of technology long advocated and followed by the Republican party by Jerry Pournell et al. while simultaneously and schizophrenically proposing to go back to a NASA-centric anti-small business space program. This helped alienate engineers, and non-social conservative intellectuals.

The 47% comment and his anti-illegal immigrant positions “self deportation, &etc.” further poisoned the well of public opinion among those older and retired voters receiving government assistance and among Latinos, while his anti-libertarian disrespect of Ron Paul and his supporters cost him valuable support among the libertarian and youthful wing of the Republican party.

In short he alienated every potential base of support the party needed in the future, while simultaneously embracing far right social conservatives that make others in the party and the general electorate (pro-choice, gay, or people with gay family members) uncomfortable.

I'm not even going to get into his lack of specifics on taxes, the economy and serious health care reform.

Good men do not HOPE for revolution. It is simply to be endured.

I was discussing the mess in out government, and the apparent intractability of cleaning it up with my friend Mark Smith.  I have often called for there to be few laws, rigorously enforced, and applied evenly without exception.  I think the whole of the law should be 10,000 words (or less!), double spaced 12 point font on 8 x 11 paper.  If they want to put something in, they should have to take something out.  No regulations or other fine print not specifically laid out in that law should exist.  There should be no tax code, or getting around this limitation by making an addendum, etc.


You should be able to sit down and in an afternoon learn how your country works and is regulated from a-z.


Additionally there should also be no more than 3 levels of management in any government entity except the military.  Managers should manager no fewer than 8 employees.  Professing ignorance of the doings of your subordinates should be cause for immediate dismissal.

Mr. Smith had similar views, and here I am paraphrasing "Our laws are ... not meaningless. They are INTENDED to be dense, confusing and TOTALLY dependant upon "the clerks" to enlighten we, the benighted.  They create these complex laws and regulations on purpose. It is by design.  Therefore it CANNOT be "fixed".  If you refuse to name the enemy, you cannot fight him and you surely cannot win.  Capitalism has "creative destruction" as a KNOWN mechanism that CAN be implemented to "fix" problems. There is NO SUCH MECHANISM  in EXISTANCE for "government" or a bureaucracy.  The only mechanism in existence is "revolution". It is to be avoided."

I was going to say Maximilien Robespierre had a solution, but it didn't work out well for him.

"Revolution is ugly, messy and TERRIBLY inefficient. It is to be avoided at all costs if at ALL possible.  It does NOT go easy on the weak either.  Good men do not HOPE for revolution. It is simply to be endured.  Cancer cannot be "reasoned" with though."

I agree.

Get all JNDI objects in Java

try {
listContext((Context)new InitialContext().lookup(""), "");
} catch (NamingException ex) {
      LOG.warn("JNDI failure: ", ex);
}

/**
* Recursively exhaust the JNDI tree
* @throws NamingException
*/
public static final void listContext(Context ctx, String indent) throws NamingException {
  NamingEnumeration list = ctx.listBindings("");
  while (list.hasMore()) {
      Binding item = (Binding) list.next();
      String className = item.getClassName();
      String name = item.getName();
      LOG.info(indent + className + " " + name);
      Object o = item.getObject();
      if (o instanceof javax.naming.Context) {
      listContext((Context) o, indent + " ");
      }
  }
}

Ron Paul - Should Pick General Petraeus Now.

Rick Santorum is an social conservative that wants to legislate morality.

He is not in my opinion electable. He also opposed rule by the constitution, which I guess is inconvenient for him, with it's "un-elected" supreme court. As he becomes known he can only sink in the polls, or be embraced by the extreme right only to die in the general election.

Romney is a tool of the party establishment and a the 1%. I can't see him winning a general election against Obama if the economy continues its current trajectory of a gradual recovery. His foreign policy positions are not different from Obama, and he really has no vision for a renewed purpose for America, and the bottom 80% of the public generally. He also has no vision for energy, space, science and development in general, preferring to prove that government is the problem. I just don't see a Romney candidacy catching fire with the public.

So that leaves Gingrich or Ron Paul, one of which (Gingrich) has been mortally wounded.

I think it's unlikely the fragmented field of the remaining social conservatives will leave any time soon, so it's likely Ron Paul's total of 20-25% will continue. Public selection of a strong advocate for the armed forces and a proven defense record like Gen. David Petraeus could swing many undecided voters to his cause, as well as steal headlines, but he will likely put off such bold moves until it is too late. Voters think he is a kook, and a kook he will remain unless he embrace traditional american defensive obligations and responsibilities. This is despite his strong economic policies (overly austere in my view, but likely to be tempered by a rebellious congress), and obvious constitutional credentials.

We therefore appear headed for four more years of Obama.

The new Conservativism and why it fails.

This article got me thinking about conservatives and the Republican party in general and my own dissatisfaction with their current policies.

Many Americans are fiscally conservative and socially liberal and not well represented by the conservatives in the Republican party now. I like many believe in a solid national defence (Guns/Roads/Bombs).

Like many I am in favour of spending on transportation (and communications) in general, and opposed to almost all other non-defence spending.* I am opposed to legislating morality, and ignoring the benefits of shared spending on infrastructure. I am also mindful of inequalities in wealth and justice due to financial inequalities and support policies that tend to distribute wealth evenly across generations. I also believe in holding those responsible for harming the republic to account. The Republicans presently do a poor job at all of this.

* Defence regarded as the safety of the republic taken broadly - this includes food defence, defence against dangerous products or pollution, defence against wasting money on foreign oil (MPG standards), defence against falling behind in science and technology, etc.

And Obama got the bad guy, so he gets my vote in the next election. Simple as that.

Blizzard and Gold Farming Prisoner Abuse

Chinese prisoners are allegedly being forced to work long hours earning money for prison administrators in China by illegally playing Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMO. I am distressed to hear about the many recent negative stories with regards to alleged prisoner abuse. I would like to hear Blizzards side of the story.

Q1: There have been several reports in the press and elsewhere that Chinese prisoners have been forced to play games to earn money despite Blizzard's official policy against gold farming. What steps is Blizzard taking to prevent prisoner abuse?

Q2: The current Warcraft(tm) gold farming policy has been in place for some time. Given the apparently large scale size of the underground economy and ongoing abuses is Blizzard going to be taking additional steps to prevent criminal activity using Blizzard systems?

Q3: Can Blizzard comment on the pending litigation the company may be facing as a result of the reported criminal activities?

Q4: Is Blizzard working currently with US or Chinese law enforcement investigation of the alleged illegal activities?

Q5: Do you have any other statement for the public regarding these alleged incidents?

The world wonders...
-Let's Declare Shenanigans

We got Bin Laden! Hurrah! Now what?

Should the USA continue to give aid to Pakistan?
Should the USA align with India?
Should the USA leave Afghanistan, declaring victory, only leaving behind trainers co-ordinators and some CIA and military security?
Should we go after Mullah Omar?
How does this affect our relationship with Russia, China and India?
Should the US revisit it's internal national security arrangements?
Should the navy seals be given a ticker tape parade through the streets of New York city?

There is much to think about and discuss.
It seems clear that the Pakistani ISI got caught red handed with it's paws in the cookie jar.

Libya Freedom Slavery the UN and US Obligations

The people who do not want the US or the world to become involved in Libya burn me up. A typical comment: The issue is that it is a Libyan problem. Another: I agree... The United States should no longer involve itself in these internal fights in the middle east or anywhere else. We are not the World Police Force, World Court of Justice or World Welfare Provider.

This situation is EXACTLY like slave labour making cotton. Britain didn't have slaves a century and a half ago but she bought cotton from the USA which did. When a civil war broke out she and other European powers dithered and ended up supporting the union against their own immediate self interest. THANK GOD. Can we do less?

We have a responsibility to support freedom loving people all over the world. Both a UN resolution and the Arab League have asked the entire world to do so. We are a member of the UN and have international as well as moral obligations. We are the leader of the free world and the leading democratic power on earth and we have an obligation not to follow only our own narrow interests.

I want there to be a peaceful and just world order enforced by every means humanity can bring to bear. Right now that is the UN as led by the USA, France, Britain and the rest of the EU as the closest regional powers with the ability to project force.

Oil makes the world order run and as part of that order you have an OBLIGATION to oversee EXACTLY how it is produced and who profits from it's sale. To deny that is to try to absolve yourselves of the crimes of the producers while profiting from the abuse.

Like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of the blood of Jesus while allowing the Pharassies to kill him and profit thereby, you would have the world stand idly by as hope and change are crushed underfoot while you continue your own pleasant existence.

Steve Jobs - Thank You

Steve Jobs is apparently very ill. That makes me sad. His company and it's products performed valuable services showing what computing could be like if the usability and user experience was considered carefully. Though not the cheapest or fastest, good well designed sleek products that meet consumers needs were the hallmark of his companies. It let us see that the bright happy shiny future we were were expecting was possible, if only we worked hard for it.

I want to say thank you Mr. Jobs. Your life has made a big difference to humanity.

Dear Time Warner

Dear Time Warner:

I want to protest your use if the Intel insider technology. I resent you using it and will not buy your products till you stop.

Please don't screw consumers. Fair use if part of the law. Follow the law.

Bush Wins Third Term - Keep the Change

This is not what the voters thought they were buying for their $1.

So far there has been no action on Don't Ask Don't Tell, no action on START, Guantanimo is still open, Americans overseas can be killed by our government on the president's say so without any legal findings or finding of a court (and not on any recognized battlefield). Medicare and Medicaid slowly bleed to death (where reimbursements) while robber barons and criminal financial schemers drain the public dry using the Fed and bailouts to throw the women and children out of the life rafts.

The Bush-Era Tax Cuts are now going to be extended by the administration, in exchange for a temporary extension of unemployment benefits. In exchange for a few crumbs, the multi-millionaires will be able to pull up to the banks in armored cars and stuff them with bags of money before driving-off laughing into the night.

Excuse me, but you can keep the `Change'; I'd like my dollar back.

Wikileaks Heroes Pfc. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange

Obviously the government was keeping things secret for far too long that did not need to be secret. If it's over 10 years old and it doesn't reveal details of military weapons/plans or the identity of a US agent it should not be secret. Period.

Is this a democracy or not? Does the public have a right to know what the hell it's government is up to or not? Can the public be trusted to govern or not? YE,S YES, YES.

There's no half way here. Pfc. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are heroes. Nothing less.

If the government doesn't want secrets released it shouldn't create them.

Agreeing with Ted Rall

Every so often I find myself agreeing with some what of Ted Rall has to say.

First and foremost, the economy. 60 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans told exit pollsters that the lack of jobs was their number-one issue. Obama never proposed a jobs program. He gave trillions of taxdollars to thieving banksters who ought to have been arrested instead, then tried to pass off this outrageous giveaway as economic stimulus. To make things worse, he stuck with an impossibly absurd argument: more people would have lost their jobs without it.

Even if the phony stimulus stopped things from getting worse--and it didn't--people don't care. They want the 20 percent of Americans who already lost their jobs--their friends, spouses, children and parents--to find new ones. Obama never addressed that.

He didn't even try.

...

The takeaway is anger, not ideology. People are pissed. They hate the bailouts, but the bailouts aren't the main point. More than anything else, the American people are angry that their government doesn't even pretend to give a damn about them.

Some of my friends disagree with the view that giving banks money instead of arresting the criminals (both political and corporate) responsible for this mess was the right thing to do. I can't but disagree, paying of the mortgages of Americans, even speculators would have been far preferable to throwing people out of work and re-enriching the rich and irresponsible.

Me, I wanted people (1) - PUNISHED, and (2) - THE ECONOMY FIXED. Instead we got (1) - BAILOUT, and (2) SCREW THE PEOPLE.

No wonder people are pissed.

VOID

Persuading other unhappy voters to vote out incumbents on election day is the key to improved government. Do your part!

After all if they are all thrown out of office every time they have no reason not to do the right thing.

China and the Nobel Peace Prize - And a Great Day for the World

中国是居于领先地位的国家。但有一个障碍。

我支持中国的迅速崛起，但公民必须能够批评政府。中国需要它的持不同政见者。

中国有许多忠诚的公民。如果没有真正的问题存在，人们只是耸耸肩，并忽略抱怨。中国太大，太忙碌，听取不满的持不同政见者。这是你应该采取的态度。忽略他们是明智的课程。不认真对待他们。

这是正确对待批评。如果中国接受了诚实的批评和公开的公众辩论，政府将不再是一个西方的关注。中国必须强调民族团结，而且还诚实和开放性。然后，中国将成为世界的中心。

这将是世界上伟大的一天。


The original in English:


China is among the leading nations. But there is an barrier.

I support the rise of China, but citizens must be able to criticize the government. China needs it's dissidents.

China has many loyal citizens. If no real problem exists, people will just shrug and ignore complainers. China is too big and too busy to listen to disgruntled dissidents. This is the attitude China should take. Ignoring them is the wiser course. Do not treat them seriously.

This is the correct treatment for criticism. If China accepts the honest criticism and open public debate the government will no longer be a Western concern. China must stress National Unity, but also honesty and openness. Then one day China will be the center of the world.

And that would be a great day for the world.

An Honourable Middle East Peace Proposal

Currently the Old City "the real Jerusalem" has an Arab population of 32,635 and a Jewish population of 3,942.

I propose purchasing all land and buildings in the city, and making it an international historic site to be managed by UNESCO charged with preserving and protecting the site.

The site is a mere 0.35 square miles (244 acres). Even purchased at 10 million an acre it would cost less than $2.25 billion. The Palestinians and Israelis could each claim the Old City as their capital, but the actual government of their countries would have to be administered outside of the UNESCO site. The city surrounding the site would be divided between Israel and Palestine and renamed to something other than Jerusalem. I suggest East City and West City respectively, keeping proper nouns and their unfortunate connotations out of the argument completely.

Let it be an international site of worship and peace maintained in a respectful manner by historians archaeologists and researchers in cooperation with an small international guard presence.

Surely if God returns he would be pleased to see everyone cooperating.

In cooperation with the declaration of a Palestinian state, and with reparations and an apology in lieu of a right of return to Israel proper, this would resolve the most contentious issues allowing the Palestinians and Israelis to live in a just and fair peace together preserving the honour of both.

Both Parties are the Enemies of the People

The Republicans are self interested and the party leadership cynically advances business interests and the country club entitlement mentality cynically using social and religious issues to hold together shifting coalitions of the angry.

The Democrats are the party of socialistic reform, trying to wield the power of the state to remake America into an egalitarian society by promoting federal power. They don't appear to realize that power once aggregated is never relinquished and the power once given to a central authority is seldom given back. One day that power may be wielded against them, they will not like it much then....

Both parties chuckle while excluding or minimizing the effect of all 3rd party efforts or co-opting them (the tea-parties). This situation appears resistant to change. An angry impotent and ill-informed electorate throws the bums out at every election, switching like a schizophrenic from one bad strategy to another back and forth over and over.

Many people are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. There is no party for them, and both parties of looters are there to make sure it stays that way.

There does not appear to be an end in sight.

The Tea Party

The tea party is an angry populist movement. Give us a double dip recession and hyperinflation, and the collapse of the economy and there is a real revolution brewing. Revolutions can be peaceful, but this one won't be. These are Americans, and Americans are armed to the teeth. They have also been watching two wars overseas, and understand the limits of modern armed force. They view the government as the enemy and won't hesitate to take up arms against federal authority. They may not win, but the rebellion if crushed will change America forever, turning it into another European nanny state with cameras in every closet.

Heroes not Robots

Recently this piece of drivel was in the NY Times, written by Simon Ramo. Frankly I was incensed when I read it. The cowardice advocated in this piece amazes me that it was written by an American male. Since when was safety more important than heroics or glory? We can all lock ourselves in our houses, barricade the doors and hide measuring out our lives by the teaspoon, or we can go out and LIVE. Who would not want glory, if not for yourself, at least for others? Robots never inspired anybody to become a hero.

-G

Bob Herbert, Blaming the Victim

There was an interesting article by Bob Herbert in which he is fairly accurate in his portrayal of the Republicans. Unfortunately the nuts on the left are guilty of the same excesses which takes all the wind out of the sails of his argument.

While I agree with many of of these points, the Democrats are equally to blame for poisoning the atmosphere of political discourse. The consequence of this from both sides is the outrageous behaviour of some fringe tea party activists. What we have here is two viewpoints that are irreconcilable. Because neither side will give on any points, increases in temperature in the political discourse will result in the pot starting to boil. What we now have are a hard core remnant of Republicans facing a hard core remnant of Democrats, leavened by a handful of Democrats from swing states. Those will be swept from power in the next election replaced with a handful of Republicans from swing states. There is really no middle ground on issues like slavery, abortion or the right of women to vote. And now apparently nationalized healthcare. Americans are AFRAID.

The parties occupy the leftmost and rightmost fringes of the discourse. Everyone in the middle feels disenfranchised. The tea party people, libertarians an technocrats, even scientists are all being used as grist for the mill for one party to gain a temporary advantage of over the other party.

Disenfranchised people get angry. Angry people are easy to manipulate and angry people can become violent.

We need to re-evaluate who we are as a nation, and give those in the center a voice. Otherwise the republic will fail and our liberal democracy will be replaced with a bureaucratic dictatorship with trappings of democracy just like Rome.

Annie Get Your Gun

The House may try to pass the Senate health-care bill without voting on it.

OK, now that's called taxation without representation. I guess if they do that the republic is dead and it's time for a new revolution. Annie get your gun.

There are numerous articles on the internet about how the house may try to pass the Senate health-care bill without voting on it. Now clearly this is unconstitutional and illegal. I guess we'll need some flags and uniforms. I wonder how much bloodshed a new civil war would cause. Hopefully not more than the civil war as a percentage.

618,000 out of 31 million or so, roughly 10 times that today. So the question is:

Is socialized health care worth the lives of 6-10 million Americans (or more)? I would advise Nancy Peolsi to tread carefully. They're called tea parties for a reason.

Chill Out

Some more fun climate related entries:

http://physicsworld.com/blog/2010/02/physicists_are_modellers_too_b.html

http://physicsworld.com/blog/2010/02/would_researchers_entering_the.html

http://people-press.org/report/556/global-warming

More Climate Change

The climate change scandal is not going away.
Peer review of climate change emails (Feb 1st 2010).
Chinese Data (Feb 1st 2010).

Mind Wipes

Apparently there is a new method to prevent people from remembering stressful events and having PTSD afterwards. I find this troubling coming as it does after doctors have found a way to remove painful memories. After all if the concentration camp guards can't remember shoving people into ovens, and shooting the children, how can we ethically punish them? What if we can't remember it even happening? Imagine this technology gradually perfected. The government could commit any horror and make the public forget. This is a slippery slope at the bottom of which is the annihilation of nothing less than the human soul. People need their pain, their fear, their guilt and trauma. Otherwise they aren't people any more.

Lost Premier

Apparently a TV show (LOST)is more important than good governance. Folks you can't make this stuff up. Where are all the adults?

Avatar - B

== SPOILER ALERT ==

10' tall blue smurfs and floating mountains. It was Pocahontas with aliens complete with singing. The corporate human enemy (thank God they weren't wearing US flags on their uniforms) are there to get a mineral they can't find elsewhere and the smurfs are sitting on top of it. I found the plot recycled, and not a single new idea in the whole film, with one dimensional enemies (Mr. Hard Case Soldier, and Mr. Evil Corporate Exploiter made an appearance). Unless you consider golfing into a coffee cup, and a brief I'm a veteran, you're a veteran of such and such back stories. That said the film was visually stunning, probably one of the top 5 films I've ever seen as far as visual spectacle was concerned. The visuals didn't REALLY get in the way of the story, but the floating mountains were a bit hard to take (given the mineral, I'll give that a physics pass, but barely).

If you are bothered by physics or time-lines, 2154 is probably too soon for spaceships with NAFAL to get anywhere except the closest star systems. Given the evident mass shipping of materials too and fro, even granting the base shown was built locally the actual level of technology in the film was disappointing low. We'll assume the corporate types had access to the military equipment of contemporary Nigeria say, but if the mineral is that important, why is there no government oversight?

The biggest problem with the movie is the anti-capitalist anti-corporate anti-technology pro-noble-savage view of the world. Savages are savage. The smurfs don't even use fire. Given the importance of the mineral, the next contact the aliens will have with earthlings is likely to be a few dozen high-yield Cobolt-60 dirty nukes launched from orbit to sterilize the planet, or at least a large swath of it. Hard for flying smurfs to deal with fallout and gamma rays. Of course killing the natives is supposed to "look bad", so perhaps there is oversight after all.

Realistic? Sort of given the content of the movie, and our past contacts with native peoples. Depressing view of mankind, technology and progress? Oh God, yes. That said, the built in neural interfaces for all the critters was cool. I don't plan on unplugging my refrigerator and air-conditioner any time soon, or going to live in the jungle in harmony with the animals. It was a cool view of an alien world, but it was also very preachy.

Festival of Hate

ABC reports that President Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department. Now usually this sort of thing would cause me to just roll my eyes and mutter something about the democratic party being a freak show, but I was unprepared for the explosive vitriol heaped on this unknown and apparently hard working (if perhaps regrettably interesting) person. One person shared my view calling it a "festival of hate". It reminded me of the way Jews, Roma and Poles were treated by Nazis before WWII.

"...I can tell you that person who think that their thinking is the only way are doomed themselves to eternal damnation. God created all of us. Not one or the other is inferior...." (quoted in part from Dolores Jones).

My view:
Dolores Jones, as a Christian and a father I can only hope my fellow Americans are as tolerant and open minded as you are. If you believe in liberty you can see that people who embrace others however unusual they are, who are DOING NO HARM are on the right side of history. Angry prigs and psudo-christian-faschist-cum-flag-waving-partiot-wannabees obviously don't know what freedom is FOR, or WHY it's worth defending. What if it was your child? You'd disown them for your religion; you really think that's what a GOOD GOD - THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE wants? Idiots.

A photo that could have changed history?

Recently a photo has come to light showing JFK on a yacht doing what young rich powerful men of means and normal levels of testosterone do, married or not, namely enjoying the presence of beautiful young, and in this case naked ladies.

Risqué? You bet. The photo proves nothing other that that JFK is the libertine we all knew him to be. Perhaps if this photo had come out before the Lewinski affair Clinton might have avoided an impeachment? But it is hard to see how such a picture would have seriously altered history. Although perhaps a sexually satisfied Kennedy was a bit slower to draw on a confrontation with the Soviets over their missiles in Cuba. So maybe the event itself was important, but the picture, not so much. Was Kennedy a dog for possibly balling one or more young nubiles while his pregnant wife was waiting to deliver? Of course. But is such behaviour really unexpected, especially among the chattering class? Of course not.

Would he have been elected had this photo come to light then? Probably. After all, the girls were my brother and the senator's friends, I was embarrassed by being there, but you know we were on a boat in the middle of the ocean. How was I to know, and there wasn't any hanky panky anyway, and Jackie said I could go. What's the big deal? Those inclined to vote for him would have, those not so inclined would not have.

Fool Me Twice

Recently the brakes failed on my Ford F150. That was exciting but not exactly a surprise, they had been acting up for a week, and I meant to get them serviced, but suddenly the caliper on one failed completely, quickly draining the brake system of fluid. Nothing is quite as frightening as that first time the brake pedal goes all they way to the floor. But some quick thinking, a switch to 1st gear and judicious use of the emergency brake enabled me to limp home. However it got me thinking about a few issues that have been bothering me for quite some time.

Apparently drivers have not improved at all since I was a boy. Vehicles themselves are (in general) vastly superior, but it takes a special type of moron to see a driver with their hazards on putting along at 25 mph, and to decide one would like to whip around and then immediately in front of them at a light. Hey bozo, maybe the hazards are on because the car HAS NO BRAKES?

A second point, is that Fords are better in general then GM vehicles still. In fact is they are on par with Toyota cars. And not in reliability in general, but in after market service. The Ford caliper set we had to purchase had EVERYTHING included in the box. New bolts, compression washers, retaining clips, the whole nine yards. And it was an OEM part. The comparable GM OEM part came with a caliper.

And that's why despite a government bailout GM still sucks.

Rahm Emanuel and Compromise

The left is bashing Rahm Emanuel, and lamenting that they don't have Howard "The Scream" Dean in charge. Sorry to disappoint the hard left, but I like my health insurance company thank you very much. And comparing conservative democrats to traitors, these guys are completely off the deep end. Medicare, prescription drugs, welfare reform, were all Republican initiatives (or bipartisan with Republican support).

What has disappeared in America is civility, compromise and searching for a centre as a way forward. Lieberman is a HERO for acting like a senator instead of rubber stamping what the administration proposes the way the Republicans and Democrats have BOTH done over the last two decades. Harry Truman and FDR both understood compromise. He's a real senator like Sam Nunn or Tip O'Neil.

Climategate

At one point I believed in AGW, but I no longer am convinced. Unfortunately who the scientists are is now in question. In my view the entire scientific literature on climate change from 1977 onwards needs to be reviewed again in a modified peer process in which only scientists who had PHD's before 1977, and who were NOT involved in AGW research review AND who do not have a dog in the current debate review the literature. This includes ALL of the PHD dissertations, and peer reviewed journal articles of ALL climate change, assigning each paper a grade between an A, B, C, D or F, and reviewing the raw data that went into each paper.

Papers that are A's or B's could be considered acceptable, and citable by other such papers. Everything else has to be thrown out. If that throws out people's PHD's requiring them to be re-credentialed, that's too bad. We quickly need to know how much of the science can really be trusted.

In my view it is far more likely that this entire branch of science is bogus, and we need to be absolutely sure that people like me are wrong and that people who believe in AGW are right. On the other hand if I am right and they are wrong, we need to re-orient the debate on energy and the environment to reflect that new reality. None of this changes the need for humans to recycle, use energy efficiently, conserve and reuse where appropriate, protect the environment and fragile natural resources, or the need for clean water, sanitation, education or effective health care.

Disturbing Lack Of Reporting

CNN and the NY Times covered climategate, but ABC, NBC and CBS have not, 14 days in. John Stewart did however, in a hillarious skit.



The bias in the news media has never been more obvious, nor has the electorate ever been so divided in modern times.

Power and Women

Recently Tiger Woods is in the news, caught having affair(s?) despite his very attractive wife and three small children. Tonight the TV series Monk ended revealing the judge slept with a student and had a child with her (and then killed her, the nurse who delivered her and the doctor who tried to blackmail them). This got me thinking about strength of character and public and private morality and it's reflection in our marriages and commitments to each other.

It seems that some people are attracted to celebrity no mater what, and will throw themselves at celebrity, or a politician, even one known to be married with children. Temptation when dragged frequently enough in front of many, (perhaps most), people is of course hard to resist, so avoiding opportunities for temptation becomes necessary, but that's not really possible in a political life, or a life of celebrity. Perhaps it's natural for people in positions of power to give in to them from time to time. I'm not saying that that makes it right, but it is very human and understandable. It might be more disturbing to learn of a person who is not tempted by normal urges, after all what deeper desires do some among us have? Perhaps refraining from obvious masks not innocence or morality, but the temptaions of unnatural devils.

Generally adults are allowed to do what they want with each other, and except for the special situation where people are in inequitable positions of power any such relationships are tolerated. But is this really good? Clearly in a situation like that of the President and Mrs. Clinton's where the marriage is based on power more than on sex, whatever affairs the other party engages in are unlikely to affect their own marriage, no matter their protestations to the contrary. Also clearly someone in Mrs. Lewinsky's position should never have been under any illusions that she meant more to Mr. Clinton than a pleasant diversion and stress relief. After all is having a sexually frustrated man with his finger on the nuclear button really a good idea?

In all seriousness marriage should mean an exclusive commitment of love between two people, but many fail to live up to that ideal. It's hard to see how the non-cheating member of a relationship can honestly get over such a betrayal, but then perhaps many others don't regard marriage that way. I'm not being judgmental, but am simply asking about human nature, and wondering if we're asking too much of people like politicians and celebrities to expect their personal lives to match their ideals. Of course it is strength of character we are asking for in public office. So maybe for them it's not.

Afghanistan - the 1% effort.

All that is necessary to win the war in Afghanistan is for a medium sized NATO member to match the US or UK contribution to the war effort, shaming other NATO members into a decent contribution.

1000 Italians, less than 1/3 of 1% of the armed forces of a nation freed from fascism are to reinforce the 2700 Italians there already.

Only 4,520 Germans are in Afghanistan. There are 620,000 soldiers in the German armed forces. Less than 1% of those are in Afghanistan. They have orders not to engage the Taliban in the south and east of that nation.

About 1,473,000 Americans serve in the armed forces, of those soon a total of 98,000 will be there, which would bring us forces to about 6.6% up from 4.3%.

10,700 UK soldiers are in Afghanistan, out of a force of 429,500 - that's 2.49%.

There are 28 million Afghanis. There are at least 3.7 million soldiers (both active and reserve) in the EU.

For comparison, there are 90,000 soldiers in the armed forces of Romania.

Our Timeline, and the Taliban’s

Open Letter to the GOP - Liberty and Leadership

The Republican Party is off track.

America stands for freedom, justice and representative government, but our party has betrayed both freedom and justice by failing to prosecute rapists and torturers in Iraq and those who enabled them. These people who failed to uphold United States values of freedom and human dignity shame us all. Coercion and torture like water boarding have destroyed our reputation as a centre of civilization and arguing that this is not so makes us appear to be deluded or liars. Those whose children are in public schools, homosexuals, and homosexual family members, agnostics, atheists and many with non-fundamentalist religious views were excluded from our party. Now those who believe in human rights are as well? This is insanity.

Our scepticism of government and failure to govern responsibly (or even to budget effectively) have castrated Republican arguments that it is the party of small government and fiscal responsibility. No great portions of government were outsourced, no government departments were closed. For energy independence no nuclear plants were put into service, no great hydro power projects were begun. Even the Yucca mountain disposal site was not opened.

While we were in power we handled Russia (our foreign policy forte) poorly and did not achieve any important progress in China or Iran. No progress was made in Palestinian-Israeli relations. Americas science leadership continued to decline. Massive social inequalities and concentration of vast wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer Americans continues to occur, while social upward mobility has begun to break down. Our republic can not survive if gigantic social inequalities are tolerated intergenerationally. The drug war continued to rage while the black family continued its disintegration.

The attack on science by religious elements in the party in evolution and the environment undermined our claim to be a prty of intelligent and rational people. Our support of the death penalty and opposition to abortion were contradictory and morally indefensible. Our failure to regulate the excesses of the executive branch were damning. Knee jerk reactions to gays and minority groups combined with uptight small mindedness have marked us a party of hypocritical busybodies. Republicans must choose freedom, not paternalism. Republicans must choose hope and fortitude not fear and force. Republicans must be the party of Lincoln and Reagan, truly a party of American Americans. If you can recite the pledge and agree to the ethos of America - liberty, representative government and free enterprise, the party should welcome you with open arms. We must be moral if we hope to encourage others. We must participate in government if we hope to govern. America has never been fond of obstructionism or hypocrisy, but has always favoured bold forthright leadership.

We must choose liberty so that we may achieve leadership.

Republicans warn us to WATCH OUT for married Gay Clone Soldiers!

Recently I received a Republican Strategy Survey for October 2009, (full disclosure, I am a registered Republican in Windermere Florida, District #8). It had a number of fiscal items in it, and some expected red meat.

Some were particularly choice and made me see a bit of red:
#7 My Family and I are benefiting from the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. - That's a no.

Others were just red meat sops to the ignorant:
#11 I believe special interests have too much interest in Washington. - What else is new?
#12 Democrats are catering to big labour and other liberal interests at my expense. - Seriously?

Some were wrong headed:
#4 I favour a flat fax.

Clearly if that had been THE FAIR tax instead it would have been right on target. Nobody wants regressive taxation.

And so the survey went from health care to foreign policy to the military. Then the survey veered off into cuckoo-land:

#27. I support a ban on human cloning.
#28. I believe gays should not be permitted to openly serve in the military.
#29. There should be a Constitutional Amendment to prevent the desecration of the American flag. (N.B. note caps in Constitutional Amendment, as if the constitution was God).
#30. I support a Constitutional Amendment to protect traditional marriage between a man and a woman. (N.B. Again).
#31. English should be made the official language of the U.S.
#32. I believe the Democrat's efforts to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine would restrict my right to freedom of speech.
#33. I believe our lawmakers and our President have a responsibility to promote traditional moral values.

Apparently spanish speaking happily married gay super-soldier clones are the ultimate Republican fear.

As far as I am aware none of this has really been an issue thus far.

Shenanigans!

The problem with our republic (and any republic) is that politics has become a profession. A political career should be strictly single term in each office, followed by non-political work. None of this leaving office to pursue lobbying. Perhaps only passing a law preventing ex-office holders from communicating with elected officials will work. Obviously stating you had to declare that you were a lobbyist to have the laws applied to your work has not worked. Self regulation is not working, and our republic is suffering for it.

There is something YOU CAN DO to fix this!

NEVER EVER VOTE FOR AN INCUMBENT.

Declare Shenanigans!

Get your broom, and sweep the bums out!

Climate Clowns

The debate on global warming has finally reached a new level. Those who doubt humans are the cause of a warming environment, or who doubt that warming is occurring at all have been granted new life by the release of the emails from the UK recently. These scientists long derided as global warming deniers (as if denying global warming was somehow morally equivalent to being holocaust deniers) finally have a chance to have their voices heard.

The challenge now is to inflame the debate and achieve a consensus that will allow the science to be reviewed by a dispassionate group of non-government scientists who do not have a dog in this race. I propose that hard scientists in other fields like thermodynamics, physics, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering be given access to ALL of the raw data and all of the models. Let them read and examine the data and the first principles that supposedly underlie this scientific debate and once they have had time to examine it, announce their findings.

To achieve this it is necessary that we discredit the buffoons who have engaged in the partisan and political charade that has been going on. These charlatans who have been claiming that what they have been doing is science need to have their clocks cleaned and be thrown out on their asses like the snake oil salesmen they have been proved to be.

Do you want to be part of the solution? Here's what to do. Call them names. Call them "Climate Clowns". That's what they are, and from now on whenever you hear something about AGW or Climate Change or the Green House effect, just roll your eyes and say you don't care what those Climate Clowns say, you don't believe them. Demand to see the raw data, the methodology that was used to gather that data, and demand to see cross referenced assertions reviewed by non-climatologists outside of government before accepting any claim by the Climate Clowns.

Pretending the climate email leak isn't a crisis won't make it go away
George Monboit missing the point - the peer review process IS rigged, and the behaviour in the UK is probably typical not atypical: Global warming rigged? Here's the email I'd need to see
WSJ: The Web Discloses Inconvenient Climate Truths

Family Insanity and Personal Responsibility

My mother in law is schizophrenic. I am afraid if my family didn't let her live with us she would be un-medicated and eventually neglected or maybe even murdered in a adult living facility because of her obnoxious behaviour (when she is medicated she is hard to take, off her medications it's unbelievable).

I think we know how to handle her, but I worry I might be held responsible if when she is out on one of her walks she somehow causes a car accident or something similar. A woman hit her in a cross walk a few years ago, so I'm not unnecessarily worried. I don't want to loose my house and business because of my insane relative, but I don't want her neglected in a mental hospital or a escaping to live under a bridge somewhere. Her whole live revolves around taking long walks and smoking. What should a responsible person do in such a case?