Give Me a 'Y'

I bring you this video from the alternate reality channel:


(YouTube video)

Give me a "Y"? Or is it a "why," as in "why is Glenn Beck still on TV?" We already know that calling President Obama a racist is not particularly good for business. That is why 33 advertisers have dropped their sponsorship of Beck's show. I hope that list will grow.

Because race baiting isn't the only scary thing going on here. Beck's show is turning into the worst possible reality show I could imagine -- a show where the sole contestant goes insane for our viewing pleasure. I don't need to be a psychiatrist to believe the man has some kind of disorder. Making up a word like "oligarhy" is either a serious thought disorder or hilarious illiteracy.

But even more obvious is the paranoia. In 1964, Richard Hofstadter noticed the paranoid style in American politics:

As a member of the avant-garde who is capable of perceiving the conspiracy before it is fully obvious to an as yet unaroused public, the paranoid is a militant leader. He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated—if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention. This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.

The enemy is clearly delineated: he is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman—sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced. The paranoid’s interpretation of history is distinctly personal: decisive events are not taken as part of the stream of history, but as the consequences of someone’s will. Very often the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing); he has a special technique for seduction (the Catholic confessional).

It's like Roger Ailes read that essay and used it as a blueprint for his Republican spin channel. And 25% of Americans think that channel is credible for whatever reason I don't know. But for now, it's still home to Glenn Beck, and ignoring him won't make him go away.

Mediocre White Hope

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So Kansas Republican Lynn Jenkins says the GOP is struggling to find a "great white hope," and California Republican Congressman Wally Herger applauded a town hall shouter who declared himself to be "a proud right wing terrorist."

Hey, right now the Republicans should lower their expectations. The best they can hope for is somebody who doesn't say moronic things in public.

Thank You Ted Kennedy

"He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it's hard to imagine any of them without him. " — statement from Edward Kennedy's family.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy died late Tuesday night. He was 77 years old and fighting brain cancer. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1962 until his death.

I know there will be many glowing and not-so-glowing tributes to this good yet flawed man, but here I would like to simply state my thanks for his diligent work towards progressive causes: the National Cancer Act, the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Despite being born to privilege, Senator Kennedy was clearly an ally to every minority that faced discrimination and diminished opportunities. His compassion was reflected in his legislation, and he changed America for the better.

And quite possibly he was able to effect 46 years of change because he was never president:

But his failure to get to the presidency opened the way to the true fulfillment of his gifts, which was to become one of the greatest legislators in American history. When their White House years are over, most Presidents set off on the long aftermath of themselves. They give lectures, write books, play golf and make money. Jimmy Carter even won a Nobel Prize. But every one of them would tell you that elder-statesmanship is no substitute for real power.

Sadly, Ted Kennedy has died just as the "cause of his life" -- health care reform -- needs his vote. I hope this dream doesn't die with him. I hope there is a renewed zeal to provide quality health care for all. And I hope we can honor Ted Kennedy by naming such a landmark bill after him.

Rest in peace Teddy Kennedy.

That's What Friends Are For

"Friendship is a thing neccessary to life since without friends no one would choose to live, though possessed of all other advantages." — Aristotle

In the past few months I've struggled with this question: why have my old classmates all gone insane? Whenever one of them finds me on that silly Facebook, I discover a profile full of links to Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and pro-torture social groups. It's downright scary. But then I think about it and I realize that, outside of Facebook, it's really not normal to advertise your extreme political beliefs.

The Boston Globe explains why in an enlightening article on how our closest acquaintances are nearly strangers to us -- and that might not be so bad.

After all, our real-life social interactions are meant to establish rapport and to bond -- not data mine. In fact, when friends interact, they misread entire regions of each others' personalities. Too often we just assume our friends agree with us.

I try not to make such assumptions myself, but I've been in those socially awkward situations where a long-time friends assumes I hate Clinton, or immigrants or fuel-efficient cars. Like a zap of electricity, the differences in our convictions strikes both of us at once.

Here is another important point from The Boston Globe article:

Indeed, according to Michael Norton, a psychologist who teaches at Harvard Business School, simply believing we have lots of close friends brings the same benefits as actually having them. In other words, if someone’s ignorance of one of his “friends” extends so deeply that he’s not actually aware that the person doesn’t like him, he may be better off for it. Even befriending entirely fictional people seems to do some good - a paper published last year by researchers at the University of Buffalo and Miami University found that television characters actually function as “social surrogates” for viewers, and watching a favorite show can be an effective way to alleviate loneliness.

Hmm... I think too many people are alleviating their loneliness with Glenn Beck.

Barney and Friends

Barney Frank made my day today when he confronted this townhall shouter comparing President Obama to Hitler:


(YouTube video)

"Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table." Except, I would add, a dining room table would have the sense to keep its mouth shut.

I also would have told that young woman to march her under-educated ass down to a public library and do a little research on Adolph Hitler and the 11 million people his Nazi party systematically killed. And then tell me how the hell that is comparable to a program to provide health care to 46 million uninsured Americans. And then I'd ask her how she feels about the estimated 22,000 Americans who die each year due to lack of health care. I think her answer would reveal who exactly is thinking like a Nazi. It's certainly not Barney Frank or President Obama.

That girl didn't know who she was up against. I wish more Democrats were like Barney Frank. Or maybe I agree with Matt Taibbi who wishes more Democrats were like George W. Bush... at least in their ability to actually get things done. The Dems seems to be bargaining away real health care reform. Or maybe not. They now say they'll try to pass health care reform without Republican support. We really won't know until Congress reconvenes in September.

But I can't blame them if they give up on working with Republicans. They're embarrassing!

Bad Parent Blames YouTube

Apparently there is stuff on the Internet that slow children shouldn't see:

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So does this mean the Internet will be closed tomorrow? But really, while little Russell Gortzig is propped up in front of the television for the next few months -- Internet privileges taken away I presume -- his ever watchful mother and sister better keep him away from Jackass, Beavis and Butthead, and The Roadrunner. "Monkey see, monkey do," as my mother would say.

The funniest part of this story isn't even mentioned. Through an interview with Marco (the buddy who poured the gasoline) "deputies learned that Gortzig had set his pants on fire on three previous occasions without any accelerant."

Hey, I have a good idea. In addition to watching your children carefully, how about keeping gasoline, cigarette lighters and accelerant out of their reach? I'm hoping that's what Ann Curry really wanted to say to these clueless dimwits.

God, Gog, Magog, and Bush

Here's more proof why I never again want a "true believer" as president. In 2003, while George W. Bush was assembling his "coalition of the willing," he had one hell of an alarming conversation with France's President Jacques Chirac.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

I have little doubt that ultimately that unnecessary trillion dollar war in Iraq was about oil. But clearly Bush's nutty, supernatural beliefs prevailed over logic, facts, and clear thinking.

We're All Going to Die

"The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." — Sarah Palin, 2009

"Paranoia is just another word for ignorance." — Hunter S. Thompson, 2004

Let's get the facts out. America's Affordable Health Choices Act does not create "death panels." Some conservatives have dismissed Palin's claims, including now FOX's Neil Cavuto. Crazy Cavuto isn't even on your side, Sarah.

The wild-eyed fears are over Sec. 1233 - Advance care planning consultation. An analysis of the bill produced by the three relevant House committees explains:

Sec. 1233. Advance care planning consultation. Provides coverage for consultation between enrollees and practitioners to discuss orders for life-sustaining treatment. Instructs CMS to modify ‘Medicare & You’ handbook to incorporate information on end-of-life planning resources and to incorporate measures on advance care planning into the physician’s quality reporting initiative.

There is no requirement that anybody have end-of-life planning. However, this type of counseling has been a standard recommendation for senior citizens. My grandma had it back in 1994. She was 79 and her heart was failing. She knew that physically she couldn't tolerate a heart operation and that she didn't want any more treatment. She could have just as easily told her doctors that she wanted to live on life support. But the point is that she was informed of her options and prognosis, and the key to that is the consultation where your doctors discuss these issues with you and find out what you want!

And notice I said "your doctors" and not "government." You won't be having this conversation with a government bureaucrat. That's just right-wing lunacy. In reality land, the government will pay your doctor for the time spent consulting you.

We're all going to die. It's nothing new.

However, the fear-mongers conveniently forget that our current system of free-market private insurers already forces many of these end-of-life decisions on us. The scariest systems are the ones that don't follow the patient's wishes.

Like in Texas, for example, where their Advance Directives Act allows a health care facility to discontinue life-sustaining treatment against the wishes of the patient or guardian. George W. Bush signed that one into law while he was governor, and then his successor, Rick Perry, amended the law to apply to children. Since then, the law has been used to withdraw life support from an infant against the wishes of the parents. Remind me again why we call these Republicans "pro-life"?

You know, Sarah Palin is partly right. Such a system is evil. Hopefully every one of us will have quality, affordable options when healthcare reform is passed.

Death of The Town Hall

In 1943, American artist Norman Rockwell produced a series of oil paintings depicting The Four Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom From Want and Freedom From Fear. At the time, tyranny ruled over Western Europe, and the paintings served as a reminder of our motivation for fighting in World War II.

Right now, we need a reminder of a different sort, but it can be found in that same iconic Freedom of Speech painting. The scene is a local town hall meeting where one working man speaks and his neighbors calmly listen. I get the sense that they don't necessarily agree with the nervous speaker, but apparently they don't scream or yell or wave their fists. Nobody is full of rage. They listen respectfully because they might actually learn something. And besides, everybody wants the same respect when it's their turn to speak.

That's been the tradition in this country since about 1600... until last week, of course, when the teabaggers were whipped into a frenzy by their astroturf overlords. As I've stated before, these protesters do not make up a grassroots coalition of "regular Americans." The movement was manufactured by slick, conservative, well-funded, lobbyist-run think tanks called Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works with the purpose of denouncing taxation (with representation).

However, the teabaggers didn't go away after tax day. The lobbyists now have a fanatical list of grunts at their disposal, and they intend to use them to shout down any intelligent debate about other pressing issues like health care reform and clean energy. Think Progress has a leaked teabagger memo describing harassment strategies for town hall meetings. Suggestions include "artificially inflate your numbers", "be disruptive early and often", and (the most revealing one) "Try To 'Rattle Him,' Not Have An Intelligent Debate."

That says it all. They are firmly against intelligent debate. And they are proving they are against any intelligent debate. One moment of complete absurdity happened at a Town Hall event hosted by Texas Rep. Gene Green:

During the town hall, one conservative activist turns to his fellow attendees and asks them to raise their hands if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Almost all the hands shot up. Rep Green quickly turned the question on the audience and asked, “How many of you have Medicare?” Nearly half the attendees raised their hands, failing to note the irony.

But other protests have been more disturbing. In Maryland, a protester hung a Democrat Rep. in effigy. That is a clear threat.

And the only recourse at these meetings may be to arrest for disorderly conduct. We certainly can't afford to tolerate those who endeavor to silence their opponents. It's mob rule. All Republicans need to denounce these tactics or risk closing down our system of government.

But I almost forgot that they want President Obama to fail, and they want our country to fail. I guess America never was as idyllic as a Norman Rockwell painting. I wonder how Rockwell would have painted a teabagger?

Deadly Serious

I'm not sure how much longer we can look forward without looking backward. After years of following the criminality of American CEO's and politicians, I should be drained of any outrage. But then my outrage is suddenly refueled when I read this report by Jeremy Scahill, an expert on the private military contractor Blackwater:

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

You should really read the entire article and the two sworn statements linked within. However, I'll summarize some of the allegations against Blackwater founder and owner, Erik Prince:

• Operated a web of companies to obscure money laundering and evade taxes.
• Smuggled illegal weapons into Iraq for profit.
• Destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents.
• Did nothing to stop the excessive and unjustified deadly force against civilians.
• Views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.
• Ignored the assessments done by mental health professionals and deployed "unfit men" obsessed with killing "ragheads."
• Knowingly hired two persons previously involved in the Kosovo sex-trafficking ring to serve at relatively high levels in the company.
• Failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes including child prostitutes by his employees.
• Murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct.

Is it just me or does that list get weirder and weirder? The first couple of crimes are what we've sadly grown to expect from war profiteers, and then we get to the murderous Christian crusader and sex-trafficking parts...

Our government wants us to believe that they're simply outsourcing and privatizing military security, but the UN says it's a new form of mercenary activity. However, the U.S. is not under any law or treaty barring the use of mercenaries. I think that makes us look like some kind of banana republic.

We gave a 1.2 billion dollar contract to a company that operates with impunity and is run by a greedy, neo-Christian crusader in a volatile region that wants us out. At first I wanted to add Blackwater and Erik Prince to the long list of idiotic mistakes made by the Bush Administration, but Jeremy Scahill believes that Bush and company considered the crusader element a definite plus in the decision to hire Blackwater:

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Probably because of all the bad press, Blackwater changed their name to Xe -- which looks like a word I'd try to get away with in Scrabble. I have no idea what the name means, but I'm guessing it's short for "xenophobia."

Robot Weapons

Detective Del Spooner: What if I'm right?

Lt. John Bergin: [sighs] Well, then I guess we're gonna miss the good old days.

Detective Del Spooner: What good old days?

Lt. John Bergin: When people were killed by other people.

—Memorable scene from I, Robot (2004)

The future is creeping up too quickly. Last week I read that a certain wine-tasting robot thinks humans taste like bacon. That was scary enough.

Then today I read something much more sobering. Military killer robots could endanger civilians. Sounds like they already are:

"The next thing that's coming, and this is what really scares me, are armed autonomous robots," said Prof Sharkey speaking to journalists in London. "The robot will do the killing itself. This will make decision making faster and allow one person to control many robots. A single soldier could initiate a large scale attack from the air and the ground.

"It could happen now; the technology's there."

A step on the way had already been taken by Israel with "Harpy", a pilotless aircraft that flies around searching for an enemy radar signal. When it thinks one has been located and identified as hostile, the drone turns into a homing missile and launches an attack - all without human intervention.

Last year the British aerospace company BAe Systems completed a flying trial with a group of drones that could communicate with each other and select their own targets, said Prof Starkey. The United States Air Force was looking at the concept of "swarm technology" which involved multiple drone aircraft operating together.

Flying drones were swiftly being joined by armed robot ground vehicles, such as the Talon Sword which bristles with machine guns, grenade launchers, and anti-tank missiles.

However it was likely to be decades before such robots possessed a human-like ability to tell friend from foe.

Even with human controllers, drones were already stacking up large numbers of civilian casualties.

As a result of 60 known drone attacks in Pakistan between January 2006 and April 2009, 14 al Qaida leaders had been killed but also 607 civilians, said Prof Sharkey.

The US was paying teenagers "thousands of dollars" to drop infrared tags at the homes of al Qaida suspects so that Predator drones could aim their weapons at them, he added. But often the tags were thrown down randomly, marking out completely innocent civilians for attack.

On a side note, those infrared tags are the missing piece of the CTTL puzzle that 60 Minutes never explained. The use of such tagging devices requires some human judgment. Though human judgment may be shitty and clouded by other motivations, I'll never trust a computer to make better decisions -- even one programmed with the three rules of robotics as outlined by Isaac Asimov:

Law I: A robot may not harm a human or, by inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Law II: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Law III: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Though simple for a human to understand, those rules cannot be comprehended by computers without huge advances in artificial intelligence. But I'm veering off topic here. No military would even want that first law anyway.

When robots fight our wars with or without human intervention and there is not a single human casualty on our side, then what will be our incentive for peace?

Meanwhile, Cyclone Power Technologies wants to assure us that all their military robots are vegetarians. Well, that's a relief.

Higher Ground

From the BBC today: Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says opposition detainees put on trial have been subjected to "medieval torture".

There once was a time when the U.S. could act shocked at those revelations and condemn such an evil and barbaric government. Now, what can we do? Our country went medieval a long time ago. And yes, waterboarding is medieval.

And it's not just our government. It's not just Republicans or Democrats. Many Americans are willing to tolerate torture. In fact, a recent poll indicates that Americans are more willing to tolerate the use of torture than are Chinese.

What happened? We used to be proud of our Western system of justice. The most critical right is the right of the accused to have a trial by jury. But Congress decided that shouldn't apply to detainees. Apparently gathering evidence is hard. And why have a trial when you can torture and get all the false confessions you need?

We can rightfully proclaim that "the public humiliation of prisoners is against international law" when one of our own soldiers is captured... but can the rest of the world take us seriously? I lament the loss of our moral high ground.

Sarah's Farewell Poem

Sarah Palin's word salad farewell was ridiculously unbearable. She will go down in comedy history as the only celebrity we could mock by repeating her words verbatim. But maybe she would have been a better poet than politician?



But let's not encourage her.

They Don't Make Them Like They Used To

So Jon Stewart was rated America's Most Trusted Newscaster in a recent unscientific poll. I'm reflecting on this ten days after the death of Walter Cronkite, the man they used to call "the most trusted man in America," the man who narrated the golden age of television.

Of course, Cronkite retired more than 25 years ago, and to tell you the truth, I hardly remember him. I was born just 11 days before the historic moon landing, and I didn't really get into watching the news until my second decade of life.

However, I love Jon Stewart. Just because he's funny doesn't mean he's joking. But what about the other serious newscasters? We sure have a lot of them with all these 24-hour news channels. And all these cable stars share one quality -- they are pretty to look at. Or, make that two qualities -- they are really just commentators reacting to events. Or, make it three things they share -- they all publicly lamented the passing of Walter Cronkite as if he was their personal friend and mentor.

Really though, I'm skeptical. This outpouring of admiration for Cronkite seems insincere. If these guys admire him so much, they should emulate him. Instead they function as talking heads who lazily amplify every talking point from corporations and politicians. The most pompous cable news pundits may speak of Cronkite as legendary yet look back at the era as quaint. News is a big business now. No time for ethics or research.

It's a cliche to say it's all about the money, but I'm a bit worried that the current generation won't have their own moon landing moment to look back on. Instead they'll look back and reminisce about the quality reporting of To Catch a Predator. Yikes.

Running on Empty

"Running on - running on empty
Running on - running blind
Running on - running into the sun
But I'm running behind" — Jackson Browne

What brilliant politician would use this song in his political campaign? Who would remind the country that "hey, I'm losing, don't know where I'm going, and my tank is empty"? I'll give you a hint. He's not president. He's John McCain. But not only was it an unwise song choice, it was used without permission from the artist! Now the Republican National Committee is apologizing to Jackson Browne as part of a legal settlement.

Of course, I can't help but remember way back when Ronald Reagan misappropriated Born in The USA...

Okay, that was just a lame segue into the wingnut "birther" conspiracy. Despite overwhelming evidence that President Obama was born in the USA, these crazies keep prattling on.

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Barack Obama was born in Hawaii which is a US state. This is his birth certificate. It's authentic. Furthermore, Obama was 47 years old when he was elected, and he has lived more than 14 years in the United States. He meets the qualifications for office laid out in Article Two of the United States Constitution. What the fuck do these idiot birthers want?

If you don't like the president (probably because he's black), then can you at least come up with a better conspiracy theory? Not one that's easily disproved by public records!

If we can't agree on basic facts, I fear we're running towards a new dark ages where ignorance rules.

Insuring Profits

Last Friday Bill Moyers discussed the appointment of Regina Benjamin for Surgeon General and contrasted her rural medical clinic with the nation's biggest and most profitable insurance companies:


(YouTube video)

Moyers' essay is a precise narrative of our country's health-care crisis. While doctors with ethics are paid with oysters and fish, the Chairman and CEO of Cigna announces the layoff of 1,100 employees and takes home $11.4 million for himself.

The insurance industry then takes the money they make from sick people and uses it to influence the desperate health-care debate in Washington D.C.

I think it will be a big victory if the small town doctor earns this influential position as "America's Doctor."

Unpublished

As the clocks were striking thirteen, the Ministry of Truth -- I mean Amazon.com -- was deleting some e-books from their customers' Kindles. Ironically, one of the books was Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

I won't get carried away with hysteria over a repressive, totalitarian regime. This is not the government erasing books from our shelves and our memories. This is about an electronic commerce company remotely deleting unauthorized editions and refunding their customer's money.

However, I've been a big fan of the Kindle e-book reader for about a year now. I've purchased quite a few books and downloaded many free public domain works too. Like all customers, I know I have rights, and I believe I justifiably own whatever I have already purchased. If my books were to vanish over night in a wireless search and seizure, I would be furious. Let's just say my Kindle would become kindling.

Amazon.com is making the same mistake the recording industry made over MP3's: punish and anger your loyal customers. That's a very bad idea. And it's even worse in Amazon.com's case because the whole e-book thing is a rather narrow market still in an awkward early adopter phase. If the current Kindle customer is willing to shell out $300 just to read books, I'll assume they're part of that elitist educated demographic who take any perceived censorship very seriously.

And what about the future customers? Those who were cautiously considering a Kindle? Amazon.com just turned them off for good.

So what would have happened if a book publisher had printed unauthorized editions of a physical book? Certainly the book seller would not be invading homes and confiscating the books! No, the publisher would be responsible for their own mistake and pay whatever fines and penalties the law prescribes. That's the way the e-book situation should have been handled too.

I hope this isn't another case where we need a new law to address an old problem. But with more people purchasing MP3's, e-books, software and the like online, we may one day need a law to protect the digital assets of consumers.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com is at least admitting to their mistake:

Amazon effectively acknowledged that the deletions were a bad idea. “We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances,” Mr. Herdener said.

I still love my Kindle, but I trust Amazon.com a whole lot less. Glad they don't have the power to strap a cage of rats on my face.

Future Woman

(Image found on Twitpic. Click to enlarge.)

I have a repeating dream -- actually it's a daydream -- where I imagine that somehow I've traveled back in time. Not too far back in time though. Maybe it's around 1947 where my government hosts will at least know what a transistor is. And then, much like the picture above, they want to quiz me about modern technology.

I could probably explain integrated circuits, personal computers, the rise of the Internet, and maybe even Moore's Law. But I'm not really sure I could ever explain what we do with it all and why.

The Week in Review

Usually I celebrate my birthday for the entire month of July. I convince every friend and family member to take me out separately. That tactic maximizes my alcohol and cake intake. But this year was different. It was a big one. One of those decade celebrations. My friends call it the "f-word," but in another ten years I'll really know what the f-word is. This year, I only turned forty.

So we had a good party with my family and my best friends. Nobody got me a male stripper, but we did have this confetti zombie:

That's what happens when you get hit by those safe "non-explosive" fireworks. Safety? Who needs it? We like to live on the edge, and despite dire warning labels, we reloaded and shot those things all night long.

And then my favorite 80's band came. Well, okay, they didn't actually come to my party. But they came three days later to the Mountain Winery which is about six miles from my house. Close enough. And they were awesome:



(YouTube video)

That's somebody else's video of the show. Wish we had that view. Our seats were about 50 feet back and way off to the side of the stage. The staff had to squeeze us in after inadvertently "upgrading" our wheelchair accessible seats to non-accessible seats. Long story, but we're getting three free tickets to a show of my choosing this season... which is the nicest possible way that the incompetent GM could say "don't sue us."

The next night was my actual birthday and I went out to dinner with my friends Diane and John. No singing or clapping or horns blaring. But I got a brownie with a candle in it. It was a trick candle of course. I swear it was a trick candle! They say it wasn't. But every candle is a trick candle to me. You think I'm long winded? Well, maybe only in this blog.

It was a good week.

The American Free Market System

I thought the American Free Market System was based on supply and demand. That's what they taught me in school, but in an excellent article for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi explains how Goldman Sachs, a bank holding company, has been behind every financial bubble in the last century: The Great Depression, the internet stock bubble, the housing craze, and rigging the bailout. But the one thing I didn't think any financial institution could do was turn the oil market into a betting parlor:

While the global supply of oil will eventually dry up, the short-term flow has actually been increasing. In the six months before prices spiked, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the world oil supply rose from 85.24 million barrels a day to 85.72 million. Over the same period, world oil demand dropped from 86.82 million barrels a day to 86.07 million. Not only was the short-term supply of oil rising, the demand for it was falling - which, in classic economic terms, should have brought prices at the pump down.

So what caused the huge spike in oil prices? Take a wild guess. Obviously Goldman had help - there were other players in the physical-commodities market - but the root cause had almost everything to do with the behavior of a few powerful actors determined to turn the once-solid market into a speculative casino. Goldman did it by persuading pension funds and other large institutional investors to invest in oil futures - agreeing to buy oil at a certain price on a fixed date. The push transformed oil from a physical commodity, rigidly subject to supply and demand, into something to bet on, like a stock. Between 2003 and 2008, the amount of speculative money in commodities grew from $13 billion to $317 billion, an increase of 2,300 percent. By 2008, a barrel of oil was traded 27 times, on average, before it was actually delivered and consumed.

If you've been following the revelations about regulators destroying regulations, then you won't be surprised that there is a government agency, the CFTC, in charge of protecting the market from fraudulent conduct in the trading of futures contracts. But of course, Goldman Sachs convinced the CFTC that regulations were bad, and the agency gave Goldman and other companies exemptions.

So when you read about the recent volatile swings in oil prices, and you start paying $4 a gallon at the pump again, don't believe it when Wall Street insiders say "who knew?" I think they know exactly what they're doing.

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Nevermind. Guess We Can Get Rid of Her.

This was unexpected. Sarah Palin to Resign as Alaska Governor by End of Month. Palin's vague reason was stated as, "We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities." Sounds like she's getting out of politics completely. But on the other hand, this woman never makes much sense when she talks. What's the real reason this careerist would step down?

Ok, I'd like to believe she's going to concentrate on her family. Maybe she'll finally earn that Mommy Cred that I thought she was lacking from the beginning.

But the cynic in me believes some kind of serious scandal is about to break.

Or, here are two scary possibilities. She's going to concentrate on running for president in 2012? She's going to get her own show on FOX News?

Right now, I'm trying to be optimistic and hoping she just goes away for good.

Can't We Get Rid of this Woman?

You might be wondering if you should read that long Sarah Palin thing in Vanity Fair. Well, don't let me tell you what to do, but if you already know about her vindictiveness and ignorance, then congratulations. You've been paying attention! However, even after writing dozens of posts on the Wasilla Hillbilly last year, I missed something. It was this little gem about the birth of her son with Down syndrome:

More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

Where to begin? Well, you can learn a little more about the "letter from God" in this article. I cannot criticize her for wanting to express that her son will be a joy, and well-meaning friends and family do not need to grieve. In fact, I admire her for that little part.

But there's something weird going on when she writes the words from God. I get annoyed enough at my one strange friend who writes the Christmas brag letter from the point of view of her family's dog. (Everybody has a friend like that... right? Right?) But my concern with Palin is that she's not pretending to write the words from God, but believing she's writing the words from God.

That's grandiosity. Palin recently attacked a blogger who photoshopped a picture of her and Trig with Trig's face replaced with that of Eddie Burke, a conservative talk-show host. It was a lame stunt by a blogger, but Palin's people had to react. They referred to the original photo as an "iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child." Iconic? Really? Like Mary and baby Jesus? Come on, Sarah. You can defend your family, but you can't deify yourself!

Where does this end? Hopefully not with a run for president. I don't want any more true believers in the White House. That last one got us into enough messes.

Happy Endings

I like this headline from The Huffington Post: "Obama Responds To Gay Anger: You'll Be Happy In The End." Haha. Happy Endings.

However, I don't really like what President Obama is saying: "Obama added that he was working with the Pentagon, as well as Congress, to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell." He called this period a "transition" toward that end but said it had to be done pragmatically, so the new policy works in the long-term."

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of "the tranquilizing drug of gradualism." In the 1960's, many felt that the belief that blacks and whites should be gradually integrated was just a way for the government to put off doing anything substantial.

Now is always the time. If the commander-in-chief really wants to end the military policy of "don't ask don't tell," why doesn't he issue an executive order? (MSNBC video link)

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Filtering the Revolution

In the aftermath of the election in Iran, Twitter emerged as the most powerful way for Iranians to disseminate information and organize protests. The Iranian government has been censoring the Internet for years, but of course -- as the Cute Cat Theory explains -- firewalls don't stop anybody for long.

But don't expect our own government to understand technology, firewalls, or cute cats. Sens. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., plan to introduce a bill that would bar foreign companies that sell technology to Iran from receiving federal contracts.

My first thought -- have these senators heard of China? China's net censorship is well documented. American companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have all been complicit in China's human rights abuses. Heck, you might even say they were enthusiastic.

But why do these companies make technologies with wiretapping features built in anyway? Our lawmakers should know the answer to this simple question. In the EU and the US, telecommunications networks are legally required to have those capabilities for Lawful Intercept. Unfortunately, the exact same network hardware that is sold over here is also sold over there.

This fact shouldn't give the above mentioned companies a free pass for supporting oppressive regimes. However, our own government has to see the bigger picture. We want our law enforcement agencies to be able to wiretap (with a court order -- wink wink), but these Lawful Intercept requirements have consequences far outside our own borders.

Oh, and this leads me to my second thought -- why the hell aren't we punishing the companies who enabled warrantless wiretapping within the US? Schumer and Graham ought to work on that one for a while.

Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

Michael Jackson died today. A lot will be said about his unusual life and transformations, but all I want to replay right now is this little message he sang as a teenager: "You don't have to change at all."



(YouTube video)
You didn't have to change, Michael. Rest in peace.

In Search of Stimulus

First he was lost and now he is found. This new Mark Sanford show is better than that old Jon & Kate crap.

When the South Carolina governor went incommunicado for a seven days, his staff happily told us he was vacationing out in the wilderness... probably praying and possibly naked. If it turned out this upright Republican was a weekend nudist then the story would have been interesting enough.

Ends up the governor was in Argentina breaking up with his mistress.

His confession and tears are a little insincere. He was caught by a reporter at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta after changing his flight plans in order to avoid the press. If he could have gotten away with this liaison, he would have.

Hypocrisy and sex scandals are nothing new of course, but let's see how FOX News tries to spin this one:


There must be some kind of neocon defense mechanism at work here when they label an affirmed Republican adulterer as a Democrat.

Anyway, some legislators are talking about impeaching Mark Sanford. I'm hoping they do it for the right reasons -- not because of his affair, but because he shirked his duties as governor by being out of contact with his office.

And if they can't impeach the guy, well maybe Mr. Conservative can run for president in 2012?

Another Post on Pot

Well, the above comic shows one way to join the war on drugs. I wonder if it would work as a defense in court? "I was just smoking it out of existence, your honor." Okay, probably a bad idea. But here is a better idea...

Congressman Barney Frank has introduced a new bill to decriminalize marijuana use. He introduced a similar bill last year which failed. Political momentum is a funny thing. Politicians have capitalized on this war for decades, and in the process, spent billions of our tax dollars. It must be very painful for them to change direction now, but public opinion has changed and momentum is building for a broad debate.

Legalizing drugs would weaken the Mexican drug cartels, save billions on law enforcement, and ease the budget problems in states that can grow marijuana. I think we've moved way beyond those simplistic fried egg PSA's from the 1980's. Also, I'm getting really sick of hearing tragic stories like this one and this one.

Death to Potatoes

In case you haven't heard, there was a disputed election in Iran. I won't pretend to be an expert because that's just stupid.

But I do try to understand what I don't understand. Last year, during our own long and heated election debates, I blogged about McCain and Clinton's cavalier attitude towards war with Iran. The candidates' flippant remarks played to the public belief which, for as long as I can remember, is that the people of Iran hate America.

Oh, where did we get that idea? In recent memory, we got the fear-mongering from Bush who put Iran in an "axis of evil" even though there was no axis. But even long before that, we heard the Iranian chants of "Death to America." I always wondered exactly what the people meant by that.

Hooman Madj, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, says it doesn't mean they want to kill us. In fact, during the recent campaign, Iranians also shouted "death to potatoes":


(YouTube video)

So the phrase really kind of means "down with America" which doesn't sound nearly as threatening. Sometimes history is shaped by things lost in translation.

But right now, I don't think much is being lost in translation. It's very clear that Iranians are willing to die for freedom and democracy. And people who share our basic values probably don't want to kill us.

Faking Fundamentalism

Religious extremism and parody -- I've previously commented how I can't tell the two apart. Between Pterosaur Hunting, funny museums and video game protests, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. At work here is a little known law called Poe's Law, and it suggests the following:

...it is hard to tell fake fundamentalism from the real thing, since they may both espouse equally extreme beliefs. Poe's law also works in reverse: real fundamentalism can also be indistinguishable from parody fundamentalism. For example, some conservatives consider noted homophobe Fred Phelps to be so over-the-top that they think he's a "deep cover liberal" trying to discredit more mainstream homophobes.

If you want additional evidence just look at the Ohio study that found that conservatives believe that Stephen Colbert dislikes liberalism. The study raises legitimate questions about the influence of shows that parody and satirize politics and belief systems. The conclusion is that political satire may not affect people in the way that it has historically been assumed.

So while I understand the satire of Colbert and other late night shows, I still struggle to identify religious parody... probably because all religious views are a little bit nutty. However, I'm still positive that Pat Robertson hasn't entered the world of comedy.

The Frightened Fringe

So this is where we're at. An 88-year-old white supremacist with a rifle walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today and opened fire killing a security guard. The gunman, identified as James Von Brunn, unsurprisingly had a web site which was one hell of a rambling manifesto full of the extremist rhetoric we've been warned about. This shooting is our second domestic terrorist attack in less than a month.

Why? The extremists can certainly hookup online now and feed each other a steady diet of lies and hate, and FOX has graciously provided them a place to call home. But even FOX is starting to realize their audience is looking more and more like the lunatic fringe:



(YouTube video)

The kind of people who leave comments on FOX Nation are a very frightened bunch. They feel like they're losing, and they are. They're losing the last battles of the so-called culture war. We'll legalize gay marriage sooner or later. Maybe even marijuana. Abortion will probably remain legal. Stem cell research is moving forward. Oh, and we also have a black president who isn't afraid to speak with the Muslim world.

Maybe even more frightening to their ilk is that one day the politicians will stop pandering to them. They're a dying breed after all.

You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Post Is About You

I'm reading this NY Times article on blogging and finding myself getting more and more irritated. Their premise is that bloggers expect instant fame and fortune and when it doesn't come, they abandon their blogs:

According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.

Dreams? Ambitions? Are we climbing to the top of Mount Everest or writing a blog? They certainly manage to quote a bunch of dimwits who fit their profile of the discouraged blogger with an audience of one. The Internet does not mourn their retirement. But do I believe the stats that say 95% give up?

I'm positive that narcissism is alive and well. The people who think the world is interested in what they ate for breakfast probably abandoned public blogs for a good reason -- it's too easy for your friends to "forget" to check your blog. Instead those types opted for a more captured audience -- like on Facebook, where your friends, family, and distant acquaintances will at least skim your daily minutia and angst every time they login.

But my main gripe is the NY Times portraying that exact caricature of self-absorbed opportunistic bloggers. There are other reasons to blog like sharing what you've learned, pointing out interesting news items, and adding your own commentary... which is, of course, also narcissistic.

I guess you need a little bit of arrogance to be a good writer, but then I see this article about J.D. Salinger. It's a mystery if he's still writing or not. He's certainly not publishing. The article posits "perhaps he's writing not for publication but for God, which would mean there'd be no need to preserve any material traces of his work."

Well, I'm satisfied with a happy medium. Try not to be vain, but don't keep it to myself. Don't dream of fame and fortune, but think about the therapeutic benefits of writing.

Not Dead

(Image from Spamusement!)

I'm not dead. Let's just say it's been a good week for video games and a bad week for blogging. But I warned you this week was coming. I'll be back.