March 24, 2008
The God-Damned Infantry
A friend of mine, a long time critic of the Iraq War, recently asked a young junior officer now stationed in Iraq for his opinion of the situation. He shared the officer's response with me, which is worth reading. It is a little naive about our intention to leave but that probably reflects what the junior officer is told by his seniors — army leaders may well be touting this line for reasons of "morale". (Slightly edited for spelling, punctuation, and content.)
March 19, 2008
For God's Sake, Don't Mention the War!
How the Beltway Debates an Issue
By Werther*
It has long since come to universal notice that Time and Newsweek, the Coke and Pepsi of weekly print journalism, have slid to the level of what were once considered lowbrow publications like People and Entertainment Weekly. Needless to say, these latter two journals threaten to assume the Darwinian niche previously occupied by the lamented Weekly World News. So where does a reader of more elevated tastes seek enlightenment?
Continue reading "For God's Sake, Don't Mention the War!"...
March 17, 2008
Privacy and Control
Much of the debate over FISA (see, for example, this interesting essay by Julian Sanchez) misses the point. Trying to frame the problem in purely constitutional, Fourth Amendment terms puts a round peg in a square hole, unduly elevating the mindset of the Framers into a quasi-religion. Let's face it: in the most generous of interpretations one cannot fairly describe the Framers as modern thinkers. To oversimplify, their primary concern had to do with reconciling competing limited (self-absorbed, often irrational) interests whereas ours has more to do with controlling the agglomeration of full-spectrum (usually rational), predatory ones, while also facilitating government's role as a positive — perhaps even progressive — agent of change. The procedural balance we choose to strike involves entirely different considerations.
March 15, 2008
Knee-Jerk Reactions
Motormouth Matthews got lathered up yesterday about the Wright "controversy." As did Joe Scarborough. The story got some play on network news — it's fair to assume it was all over right-wing talk radio. Well, Wright's expression of "God-damn America" was over the top, but shouldn't be taken out of context, either. What the guy's been saying sounds reasonable to me: Far from being a beacon of justice and democratic process the U.S. acts the bully, to its own disadvantaged at home (today that includes the "middle class") and to everybody else overseas. He could well have gone on to argue that the U.S. is habitually run by war criminals; I haven't seen such a quote yet though if he'd said it, despite his having said it, it would nevertheless be true.
March 11, 2008
Pigeon Trials
Quite a few EP regulars have written in recently to ask whether the current upset in the financial markets marks the start of our economic collapse. Who knows? My guess would be no, despite the outstanding trillions of dollars worth of mystery derivatives and other, as yet unaddressed financial time-bombs. At the same time, I hasten to point out that the larger part of America's troubles have to do with job exports. Unemployment can't reasonably be seen as a by-product of financial heartburn. Nor can the drop in the value of the dollar. The basic structural problem remains that the U.S. buys more abroad than it sells, a situation that cannot persist indefinitely.
March 9, 2008
Cuckoo in the Nest
How the War Party Prevails
By Werther*
Readers of these screeds will have noticed that we have been maintaining a discreet silence of late. The news, such as it is, has concentrated heavily on the presidential horse race: who, when the day after the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November dawns, will occupy the glittering alabaster throne of the American imperator? We, who have been scoffing at political hacks since Sherman Adams donned his Vicuna coat, have declined to be drawn into this unseemly business. The course of empire makes its way; to comment is tautological.
March 6, 2008
And Just Another Word About Texas
Yesterday's Washington Post headline read "Clinton Beats Obama in Texas and Ohio." The New York Times' beguiling headline concurred, "Big Wins for Clinton in Texas and Ohio." Most mainstream media covered Tuesday's elections by flatly declaring that Clinton won Texas, with only a few then noting as a qualifier that actually many Texas delegates remained to be apportioned. The fact is — and it is a true fact — Clinton has not yet won Texas. If the papers of record and others absolutely had to have had an early headline, to be accurate it should have said something like this: "Texas Still Too Close To Call."
March 5, 2008
Going Negative
There's no doubt that Hillary Clinton knocked Obama back on his heels the past ten days or so, going negative. (Note, while going negative in the immediate run-up to an election is almost always effective, over a longer run there are serious potential drawbacks as voters get fed up and get a chance to weigh charges and counter-charges.) Interestingly, watching MSNBC coverage last night, most commentators got it. Hillary seized the initiative. She's the one throwing punches. Obama failed to quell the doubts she'd raised. He reacted defensively. Worse, when MSNBC interviewed Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, his attitude was that they would take the high road, turning the other cheek, so to speak. Perhaps the Obama campaign is looking past the convention, trying to maintain party unity, or avoid blame for an increasingly divisive split. This is the wrong strategy. In a fracas voters look for signs of agility more than they do good manners. At a minimum the Obama campaign must deliver tit-for-tat if they want the nomination.
March 2, 2008
Artificial Intelligence
I believe that eventually humans will be able to create some kind of artificial computer based intelligent consciousness. The word "artificial" then becoming open to interpretation. But to imagine such a creation being the product of binary computations — to be honest — intuitively doesn't feel right. No matter how many or how fast I doubt binary code calculations scale into a person. Analog, though, might be different. So it's interesting to note that some quantum computer researchers are headed in an analog direction; I wonder how long it'll be before the labs attempt to produce a conscious machine?
