The Hot Seat

Good Tidings! (for...many...)

2007-12-24T10:55:00.001-06:00

Yeah Yeah make jokes. It's my bloggy and I'll post when I want to.

In any case I've always frown upon pessimism especially from my Christians and Adventist co-religionists.

I often think the criticism of evangelical Christianity is overblown but one criticism hits home quite nicely.

A apocalyptic viewpoint in the world can sap one's passion for civic engagement.

Some call this being so heavenly minded that one is no earthly good.

Well, booyah! (That's the safety word, ifn' you hear it again, send help)

Both violent crime and property crime have declined dramatically since 1973. New York City will probably notch up less than 500 murders this year, the lowest since the early 1960s (the figure for 1990 was 2,262). Teenagers are cleaning up their act. Teenage drug use has fallen by 23% overall since the 1990s, and by 50% for LSD and ecstasy. Teens are drinking less, smoking less, having sex less and dropping out of school less. The birth rate for 15-19-year-olds has fallen by 35% since 1991. At 10%, the high-school drop-out rate is at a 30-year low.

Welfare reform is working. The welfare caseload has dropped by 60% since 1994. A series of social evils—overall poverty, child poverty, child hunger—have all decreased. Employment figures for single mothers have surged. The number of abortions fell from over 1.6m in 1990 to fewer than 1.3m this year. The divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1970. Education scores are up.

Things are not all hunky-dory. The violent crime rate has ticked upward in the past couple of years. Illegitimacy is at an all-time high. But this is a very different world from the 1970s, when America's leading cultural indicators all started to point towards Gomorrah. American civil society, aided by sensible social policies, is gradually repairing the damage of the past few decades.
Link

From an Economist article.

That is to say people can make a difference and on a large scale no less.

So...

...what's our excuse now?

Breaking News: We are All Talentless Hacks

2007-08-08T21:58:00.000-05:00

I've always said that pretty much anyone can succeed at any academic subject. That there aren't "math people" just people who learned how to do math.

As a tutor it was generally assumed this is because that my job. Slather on the cheap comforting platitudes you nerd! :P

It's time for another turnea "I-told-you-so"

Courtesy of the Freakonomics blog: (cool book, read it).

Their work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.

Link

Sweet validation...

Book Recomendation

2007-07-31T09:45:00.000-05:00

As you might have guessed, my breakdown of the "war over culture" as opposed to the "culture war" will be a gradual affair.

In the mean time, I'll plug an excellent book I read recently.

But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle
Is one of those books you hope everyone gets to read because it will save hours of frustration when discussing the nature and legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.

It is an entirely unflinching look and the personalities, plans, and divisions on both sides of the struggle told from the vantage point of the "Johannesburg of America". As a local is was an bonus to here about the history neighborhoods and buildings that I've walked and lived in.

The specific scope also brings the occasionally esoteric dialog on Civil Rights into a more earthy and ultimately more interesting paradigm.

It's really a book about the people whose names we all know and we get to her everyone's story as it pertains to the issue.

Fred Shuttlesworth
Bull Connor
Art Hanes
Albert Boutwell
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ralph Abernathy

We've heard their names (except maybe Art and Albert, they were the mayors... both of them... at the same time...that's discussed too) , but if you want to know a little better what they actually did and who they were, find this book in your local library or even better buy it. it is extensively researched and impeccably sourced and it could take time to root around in the background if you so choose.

The Culture Wars- Post One

2007-06-06T12:44:00.000-05:00

It has taken a number of things to bring us to this point.

The rail and the airplane eased travel for persons of all economic classes.

The decline in racism and colonialism gave people around the world hope for ruling their own destiny.

The gentrification of the "first-world" and corresponding needs for labor and retirement support.

All have played their part in forcing the confrontation which, I believe will form one the the primary issues of domestic policy for the entire first world.

I speak of the so called culture wars: conflicts played out in the United States by concerns over Blacks and Hispanics and in Europe by Muslims of varying ethnic backgrounds.

All are based on an old misunderstanding which we are just now beginning to unravel.

Many have been led to believe that nations are founded on and inseparable from their cultures.

This is a tragic error in reasoning.

Nations are primarily a function of geography though historical conflicts also play a part. By nature they are political constructs formed when a group seeks to exercise control over a region.

Often, in a particular region a culture will spring up and indeed cultures are often tied to the land.

But a land may be host to many different cultures, often in the same nation and no contradiction is inherent in this.

The recognition of a multicultural nation disturbs many. Too often the politics of nationhood gets tangled in ethnicity when a majority group seeks to claim dominion over an entire nation despite the presence of minorities.

The Han Chinese are a good example. China was once (and in some ways still is) an ethnically diverse territory.

The Yao. The Manchus. The Uighur. The Zhuang. Dozens of different peoples populated this corner of the world. However during imperial time the Han Chinese did what ethnic groups often did until the age of colonialism finally died.

Expansion and Assimilation once went hand in hand.

Today expansion is dying. The United Nations charter was first and foremost a rebuke of expansionism and empire building.

Assimilation, another holdover from that more primitive time continues to pose a threat to liberty.

The west has a choice to make now as to what is more important, our values or the ethnic nature of our countries...
more later.

Swiss Minaret Ban

2007-06-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

We often fail to consider the importance of Western philosophy to our daily lives. For those of us that live in countries where we are free to say, do, and vote as we please it forms the essential fabric of our daily lives. Human rights are the single greatest achievement of Western thought, but implementing is a hard battle that is far from over.

The chief enemies have been power struggles and intolerance. Both are well represented in this latest story.

Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned.
They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system.
Link

Now this is a clear violation of the Freedom of Religion as described in the European Convention on Human Rights, but after France got away with its headscarf ban, and it the crossfire caught yarmulkes and turbans as well it stands to reason that the neutered court in Strasbourg may actually let this continue.

I for one am rather tired of seeing xenophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry destroy our most important values, all so a few politicians can score brownie points.

Some feel we should simply wink at this is the face of greater atrocities occurring in the Islamic world, but no amount of wrongdoing on their part will excuse trashing our own civilization.

I'll be back with more on some of the route causes of this type of behavior.

Once more from the Top

2007-05-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

I know it will be hard to drag my old readers back after such a period of absence...

So I think I'll use this time for a bit if shameless self-promotion while no one's around to see.

Celebrating a sweet sixteen finish in the 2007 Honda All-Star Campus Challenge is my school Oakwood College.

Honda bought out an add in USA today with shots of all the players.

I'm the pretty one. (Mr. Turner if your judgment on the matter varies).

USA Today Ad (PDF)

I'm up! I'm up!

2006-05-20T12:18:00.000-05:00

Wowzers, were have I been? (The question on everyone's mind).

Well after promising to take it easier this semester I promptly turned around to drown myself i(very rewarding labor).

I've have been so busy I can't really get it across to you just yet as my dazed little brain is still a little confused (help me out here, what month is it?).

That's not the half of it. That guy, you know the one who says "It's better to have loved and lost" etc. etc.

Sooo not getting a Christmas card...

I learned that the radio airwaves are a publicly owned torture device made to repeat a certain girl's name over and over in songs until certain drivers become distracted.

That distracted drivers may drive 80 mph in a seventy zone in Cullman.

That the Highway Patrol thinks very little of these driving habits.

That one who has never received a ticket for anything before has a tendency to get nervous forget a law enforcement official has simply gone to his vehicle to write a ticket and drive away.

That this results in another ticket.

That I really need to get a summer job fast.

That young relations are likely to engage in tossing rocks.

That when they are doing this within arm range of your car trouble is bound to occur.

That I can get a rear windshield replaced for $235 and odd cents.

That I really should looking for that job.

That my computer decides to break at the most annoying times.

That my little sister's computer will have to do.

Life -1 Turnea-0

...on the upside grades look pretty durn good this semester.

Anywhoo, I'm back.

A golden month for justice?

2006-04-06T14:29:00.000-05:00

..as some already know the ex-president of Liberia Charles Taylor has, after about a day on the run, been captured as is awaiting his war crimes trial. Likely to be held in the Hague.

This, at the behest of the new Liberian government, marks the prosecution of one of the most notorious accused war criminals of the modern era.

The news is also in that another may soon join him.

Serbia has pledged to hand over war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to the tribunal in The Hague this month, the chief prosecutor's office says.
The assurance follows the arrests of several relatives of the former Bosnian Serb army leader on Wednesday.
The BBC's Matt Prodger in Belgrade says it is the strongest commitment the Serbian authorities have yet given to international prosecutors.
Ratko Mladic is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Link

Both of these men, if reports are to be believed, committed monstrous acts on a scale that those of us who live in peace may never understand.

...it would be a heck of a month (after the slow days we've had recently) if these two find themselves whisked away to the Netherlands for an extended stay.

In any case, its also National Poetry Month... I'll find a way to mark that soon enough.

2006-03-24T18:06:00.000-06:00

profile pic
Well, that's me doing my level best to look serious. I finally got bored enough to tamper with my profile, so for everyone who was wondering (ha) that's what I look like.

I think I hear paint drying next door, gonna catch a piece of that action, later.

...and speaking of dogs.

2006-03-21T11:27:00.000-06:00

A high-pitched "dog whistle" device is to be used by police in north
Staffordshire to stop groups of nuisance youths hanging around shops.
The
Mosquito sends out a pulsing 80-decibel frequency noise which can usually only
be heard by teenagers and those in their early 20s.[...]

Det Insp Davies stressed the device, which is protected from vandals by a
metal cage, did not cause pain and had been vetted for any health and safety
implications.
"The noise can normally only be heard by those between 12 and
22 and it makes the listener feel uncomfortable.

Looks like my reign of terror is drawing to a close.

Okay seriously, am I the only one who thinks this is more than a little creepy?

"Let no dog bark!"

2006-03-18T10:25:00.000-06:00

Okay, is it just me or did time take on the consistency of cold molasses for the past couple weeks? I mean seriously I think the government has finally found a way to shut all the bloggers up.

Give them nothing to talk about....

So should we break out the champagne and declare victory against incompetence or wonder what exactly they're up to that their not telling us about?

Things are happening outside the States, of course, huge protests in France over new labor laws, Milosevic kicking the bucket, Liberia finally demanding Taylor gets his...

All well and good, but not enough to make eke time out of my busy (and frankly confusing, I'll post separately on that soon) day.

If this keeps up I'll have to regale you all with stories on my oh-so-interesting life.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Break Update

2006-03-03T19:14:00.000-06:00

For anyone wondering where I've been... two words: Spring Break.

Yes, I am well aware it is still winter. Yet this week was Oakwood College's official Spring Break.

Someone in the administration thought it would be a good gag I guess. Well jokes on them, we had a high of 77 yesterday. It's cooler today but sunny and pleasant.

It's been a wonderful break, which is likely why I didn't post during it, having far too much fun.

Back to work on Monday, I should have something more to gripe about shortly thereafter.

...and I hope you read the Letter as your reading assignment over the break. I'm thinking of provoking a contemporary look at the King philosophy and how very different it is from current American feeling.

I can't help but be reminded of Malcolm X when I here much of the rhetoric in the country surrounding the War on Terrorism.

Not necessarily a bad thing, I just wonder if any has noticed the striking similarities.

Letter from Birmingham Jail II

2006-02-13T19:08:00.000-06:00

Here's our next quotation from King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

" I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "An Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation."

Cheney's Collateral Damage

2006-02-12T15:54:00.000-06:00

When I first read this I laughed.

I ought to be ashamed of myself.

The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has accidentally shot and injured a man
during a quail hunting trip in Texas. [...]Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong said
Mr Whittington, 78, had been taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital where was
said to be "alert and doing fine".
According to a spokeswoman, Mr Cheney
spent Sunday afternoon at the hospital.
Link

So will Human Right's Watch add that to the toll of injured civilians or what?

Letter from Birmingham Jail

2006-02-11T14:20:00.000-06:00

I was going to add my own commentary but I don't think it's necessary just yet.

Quoting from Marin Luther King Jr. and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

I urge you to consider the difference in the two types of peace King references here. There are as meaningful now as they were then.

AD Radio Open Lines

2006-02-07T12:18:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is AD Radio's first normal session, check out the snazzy new link in the sidebar.

They're also holding an equipment fundraiser with the goal of making the show more awesome than it already is.

Anyone can call in on any issue they want to discuss and of course anyone can leave money. If I can find a place to make a call. (I own a cell phone but quiet is hard to come by in a college dorm) you can count on me doing both.

We Have Arrived

2006-02-02T19:13:00.000-06:00

Shock for me today. This blog, for what I think is the first time has been linked to by someone who I don't think I know in any capacity.

AD, College, old high school buddy, nope. I think someone actually found something I had to say here interesting enough to add as link without the benefit of knowledge of my AD ranting.

So big round of applause for The Anteater for recognizing quality. I shall respond by returning the great linking favor and most likely posting more on the issue we seem to share in common.

Life is good.

America's Debate Radio Premier

2006-01-30T10:29:00.000-06:00

Every so often I take time in this blog to remind people who think they are interested in the decisions of their government or other powerful organization and the effects on the world around them that if they are not members of America's Debate their hope for fulfillment is forever out of reach.

It is a rather pathetic existence akin to Sisyphus hauling a rock of reason and genuine concern for his fellow man only to have the irresistible pull of moronic flame-driven third-rate forums drag any poignant revelation back down into the depths of irrelevance.

I, however, have no pity for the average suffering reader. Membership is free and easy.

Take hold of your future, lost one! Walk in the light!

Ahem....

...but for those for whom debate is either inaccessible or insufficient the administrators in their grand wisdom have a new treat.

Behold: America's Debate Radio

A live internet-radio call in show to debut directly following tomorrow's State of the Union Address.

The prescribed course of action is obvious.

(For the dim among thee)

You will listen.

Call me MISTER Rackham

2006-01-29T18:02:00.000-06:00

My pirate name is:

Morty Rackham

You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Oh yeah, I'm just that cool.

Man... I really ought to do some homework or something.

How Weird Are You?

2006-01-27T18:06:00.000-06:00

I try and honor requests, just for cosmic brownie points or something.

More likely, I've got nothing better to do, so if someone comes up with something, I'm game.

This might be a tough one as its about that subject more difficult than all others: Myself.

I try not to talk about myself too much and when I do I usually regret it as I consider my own little personal struggles pretty boring.

That said let's see what my iron sieve of a memory has got for us today.

I've been tagged to give five weird habits I have... I don't know that I have that many. Weird is less a set of actions for me than a state of being.

Here's What I Got:
1. I run. Not necessarily outdoors or for any lengthy period of time. I may be wandering around in my Pj's at one in the morning ready to call it a day and suddenly the urge to run comes over me. So I sprint the three feet to the door (it's a dorm room<--- oxymoron). I usually feel a little better then, until tomorrow when the 36-inch dash begins again.

2. I tell jokes to myself and generally daydream an awful lot. This results in my bursting into spontaneous chuckles for no apparent reason. When this happens don't be alarmed. I'm not insane (in any dangerous way), I've just made some corny joke in my head that I think is funny, it'll pass. If I'm nervous I'll also mutter my thoughts, mostly I think I like to hear the sound of my own voice at those moments, lets me know I'm still with me.

3. I sleep with a fan on, sometimes full blast, in the middle of winter and any other time. If it's cold I'll turn it away from myself, but it must be on in order for my brain to be assured that it is sleep time and the day is over. That's my ritual and I'm sticking with it.

4. I scan rooms I'm in almost constantly, looking from place to place. Unless I judge something worthy of my full visual attention I turn to get a better look at the majority of things that wander into my peripheral vision. I don't look at people when they talk to me unless I'm purposely trying to be reassuring. I can listen with my ears and talk with my mouth. To me eyes aren't an essential part of conversation. If they are few people in a room I look at every person who enters briefly. Not looking for anyone persay just keeping my beady eyes on my surroundings.

5. Phones make me uncomfortable for some reason. Even if someone calls who I actually want to talk to, I'm always hesitant to pick the things up. It's a little better once its against my ear and out of sight, but looking at a ringing phone always make me a bit uneasy. As a result I very rarely call anyone just to chat. Essential messages and then put the devil machine down. Same thing with IM. I think I just don't like the idea of real-time communication that doesn't involve actually being near the person your communicated with.

As I alluded to earlier I don't need to see them, as long as I know they're actually, you know, "there".

That's usually as weird as I get, though I can't make any promises as stranger things have been know to happen.

Five folks to bug now... and ask to similarly list five weird habits. The AD'er have almost been used up, fortunately I have other people to annoy.

1. CJ (My Roomate)
2. Tim (whose link I need to update, I'll just e-mail this post to him)
3. Eeyore
I'll come up with to more later, the wanderlust has come over me once more.

War News Radio

2006-01-25T14:28:00.000-06:00

Heard about this project on NPR. Turns out some college students run a radio program where they call up Iraqis via telephone and discuss with them issues of the day.

I haven't gotten a chance to vet it, but the coverage sounds promising.

Have at it.
War News Radio

Get Creative

2006-01-22T15:50:00.000-06:00

Late as always I finally took the latest web test that's been making the round, I take it over and over to make sure but the results are pretty consistent, these are the words of the Great Internet Quiz.

Hear Ye!

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

63%

Existentialist

56%

Fundamentalist

50%

Materialist

44%

Idealist

38%

Postmodernist

31%

Modernist

31%

Romanticist

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

Say it with me now.

Oohmmm....

Self-Interested

2006-01-18T17:32:00.000-06:00

I've talked about this briefly on America's Debate, but I don't think I covered here. I try to stay true to the goal that "philosophy is life" so I actually think about such nonsense as will follow in my day to day life.

Up for today Kohlberg's Stages of Morality.

Wikipedia has a great run down for our purposes. I'll quote here:

Level 1 (Pre-Conventional) (up to age 9)

1. Obedience and punishment orientation
2. Self-interest orientation

Level 2 (Conventional) (age nine+ to adolescence)

3. Interpersonal accord and conformity

(a.k.a. The good boy/good girl attitude)

4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation

(a.k.a. Law and order morality)

Level 3 (Post-Conventional)(adulthood)

5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles

(a.k.a. Principled conscience)

Since this is largely a political blog, I'll deal with this as it applies to public policy.

Now first thing first, I've been critical of applying human development models to nations and I remain so. I apply this concept not to a "nation" as to the expressed policies of a nation.

Kohlberg meant this concept to apply to people. I am going to use it to apply to ideas. If you think I'm overreaching join the club ;)

I gave that little litany in part to give the reader time to consider. I'd like to think that I, your humble blogger, am so in tune with the human thought process that you have already seen the purpose of my endeavor before I write it explicitly.

All Right... shows what I know....

Public policy in the US and likely much of the rest of the world can still be neatly described by stages of Morality Kohlberg relegated to the thinking of pre-pubescent children.

Specifically stage two:

Stage two espouses the what's in it for me position; right behavior being defined by what is in one's own best interest. Stage two reasoning shows a limited interest in the needs of others, but only to a point where it might further one's own interests, such as "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Concern for others is not based on loyalty or intrinsic respect in stage two.

This, in fact, with its self-serving logic, is fast becoming an widely accepted position in all morality, though the effects of such incomplete thinking in day-to-day life are so much more immediate and intimate as to relegate this mostly to sociopaths and those on the make.

I, of course, advocate a movement that call upon policymakers to "grow up" so to speak.

Maybe I'll discuss more of that later.

Pat's at it again

2006-01-08T18:05:00.000-06:00

Whenever I am tempted to regain my faith in the intelligence and compassion of the average Joe, I can always count on Pat "the Ayatollah's gots nothin' on me" Robertson.

Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

'He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,''Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, 'The 700 Club.'
Link

A fellow AD'er by the tag BoF made a funny.

I wonder what transgression Robertson will commit when "god" finally calls for his demise?

Maybe he'll be offed by a falling crate of Bibles.

He ought to have some contact with it before he shuffles off this mortal coil.

Break Time!

2006-01-02T19:14:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't posted to this blog since Thanksgiving break, but in my defense the period surrounding that break has been enormously busy for me.

Succinctly put, this semester, like no other, has really been kicking my butt.

Not to say that I didn't toss my fair share of licks right back, grades look pretty good all in all, enough A's to keep my professors on their toes.

..but the schedule has been murder for a sleep-addict like myself.

I LOVE sleep.

It's one of my favorite times of the day, which is a shame as I am unconscious for most of it. Just the same the spoils of victory in the hard-fought battle to just relax, quit fretting and fall asleep are plenty sweet.

Tutoring has, of course, be a real time-eater this semester, though of all the things that take my time I figure it's the most worthy and rewarding. I am officially overstretched right now though and I need to come up with some better arrangements so that everyone, including my tutees, can have a less stressful time of it.

My normal work hours are not for the introverted, expect a crowd.

..but I love to be making myself useful so I accept it.

Just the same life is good as always, I haven't had a real complaint in some years now.

I’ve been reading plenty over this break, Shake Hands with the Devil by the UN force commander during the unthinkable events of ten years ago is of special notice, read it as soon as possible as it explains so very clearly what was wrong with a world that will watch hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered in cold blood and do nothing.

I’ll be posting with more substance later, just a heads up in case anyone though I was actually thinking of shutting up.

Fat chance of that.

"God Loses Election: Robertson Furious"

2005-11-12T13:20:00.000-06:00

First I'd like to point out that it is a perfectly gorgeous day where I'm sitting. Low seventies for the high, not a cloud to be seen, a nice breeze...

I've always said summer was my favorite season, but fall is making the bid for an upset this year.

Speaking of upset.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,[...]God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever. If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them"

That's Pat Robertson everybody. Yes Pat "whack Chavez!" Robertson, a living testament that no affiliation with God is necessary to be a televangelist.

His fury invoked by the untolerable decision of the town to vote out school board members who insisted creationism be taught in schools.

Whatever your postion on that debate, I don't have to explain that both in terms of common sense and Christian doctrine, it takes a special sort of moron, an idiot par excellence, to think such a thing, let alone say it on national television.

..but this comes as no surprise.

In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
Link

Wait, I get the joke now. The only way we could find a worst "pastor" is to cram Satan himself into a pinstripe suit and give him a white collar to play with.

I weep for the future of humanity if this man is not removed from the airwaves within the month.

I'll get my Kleenex ready.

A Mite Warm in Paris these days...

2005-11-08T11:39:00.000-06:00

..and they ain't the only ones.

Check that date... Nov. 8th.

For Huntsville, AL my collegiate home-away-from-home the high is expected to be 84 degrees Fahrenheit.

...it's the middle of fall, there are piles of leaves all around campus and I'm running headlong through them in a short-sleeved shirt and jeans seeking the nearest airconditioned room.

I hate the cold, but it really makes you think. I mean we're expecting record highs for the rest of the week.

What if they're right about Global Warming?!

Guess I shouldn't have left the car running all last night (hey, I wanted the air to be cold when I got in!)

..but enough of that, down to business.

The preeminent story right now is 12-day old riot in France (and a bit of Germany and Belgium).

Sparked after rumors that two teens were electrocuted after seeking refuge in a substation to avoid police have touched off a level of violence not seen in France for decades.

The operative questions are: Why the rioting? How to stop it? How to prevent it from happening again?

Sadly most people have no interest in answering any of those questions seriously.

As usual people have instead eschewed all pretence of impartiality and instead found the most convenient excuse.

Culture is the whipping-boy of all armchair sociologist, I'm convinced of that now.

Well, my dorm room doesn't have an arm chair so I'm exempt.

I suppose intellectual laziness is an easy trap for an ego-laden person ( or community or country, or me) to fall into.

After all, when its so easy to blame those jihad-crazy, "Allah Akbar"! toothless mullah following, wife abusing, disco-bombing Muslims....

Why even bother to look for flaws in a society that had before seemed able to cope?

In a continent that has so often stressed the importance of historical perspective and chided the youthful short-sightedness of the US, the shallowness of thought shown here is distressing.

After all was it not the hard-drinking, bar-room brawling Papists the Irish who caused themselves the be caught in the grips of poverty on the streets of New York in the early 20th century?

..and what of the shiftless, lazy, physically-active and intellectually dull blacks?

Why don't they just integrate with American culture?

..and speaking of Americans what's with those Indians?

...I mean Little Big Horn was like a thousand years ago. Why can't the Chief drop the fire water, stop blaming the truce-breaking white man and get on with his life?

..and those twenty-to-a-van, no speaka-de-Engrish dumb Mexicans?

Betcha their problem is that foreign Hispanic culture...

..now if they would all just act like hard-working, well-spoken, law-abiding Europeans the minute they crawl under the border fence with their twelve kids(man these foreigners breed like rodents), then everything would be alright.

Of course, not one of the tolerant souls who've merely been pushed to the limit by the degradation of their age-old European culture would ever say all of that in one sentence.

That would be racist.

..break those up into paragraphs and round off the rhetorical soft edge, however, and it's merely an unavoidable observation.

A vicious logical circle is being put to work here.
Definition: Assimilation is acquiring the skill for success in a host country.

Postulate:
An immigrant population that succeeds is assimilated.

Corollary:
An immigrant population does not succeed is not assimilated.

Conclusion:

Immigrants who want to succeed, must assimilate.

Question: So... how do we know when they assimilate?

Answer: When they succeed.

Question: ..how will they succeed?

Answer: By assimilating

Question: ..and how will they assimilate?

Answer: By becoming successful

....

I mean we've done all we can do... right?

My Culture's Better than Your's...so Raspberries!

2005-10-02T14:53:00.000-05:00

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
Samuel P. Huntington

Yeppers, that about says it. This is another post to expound on some ideas that will soon form a thread over at AD.

I try to find patterns in discussion over political issue. The individual data point of statements just cry to be placed into some best-fit line pattern of an overarching theory.

Perhaps I'm overeaching, perhaps not.

You tell me.

If seems to me that nations and groups of nations have a habit of patting themselves on the back.

That's no always a bad thing I suppose, I don't think Patriotism and the like is always negative.

the problems come in when patriots abandon the absolute good in their country for their relative advantage over other countries.

My point?

The West (or which I'm a card carrying member) has always had something of a superiority complex. It had manifested itself under different flags, from explicitly racist expression like "Manifest Destiny" and "Jim Crow"...

...to more economic policies of colonization in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

It is human nature to try and explain that which hey see around them. It what I'm doing with this thread and it's what the West as a whole has been doing since Social Darwinism and before.

Since the concept that Europeans as a race are biologically superior has lost some of it's luster another theory has taken root somewhat.

It is not the equal of past expression of the superiority of the "white race," but it's dangerous in it's own way.

The new claim is that European and American "culture" explain their relative success compared to the third world, Africa, Latin America, and other regions.

The counter examples of culture as a primary economic factor are endless. China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, the rising status of Brazil, the gulf in Eastern and Western Europe etc.

..but the theory holds, probably because it's more than a little flattering.

Next pet project.

Burst that little bubble so that we can all get down to discussing economic realities which usually hinge on things far more substantial that "culture".

Whatever that means.

Random Baloney on a Sleepy Saturday Afternoon

2005-09-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've done a personal post.

It's probably because I'm not a very personal person much of the time. I probably spend more time think about Iraq policy than thinking about how my day's been.

I just ...do it.. I guess.

..but under my admirable titanium exterior lies a heart of flesh...

Or so I've been told, and I'm inclined to believe it because these donuts next to me are really talking about now and even though I shouldn't....

So while I eat here's some food for thought.

I love complaints.

I mean it. I like making them. I like hearing them, I love the tone of a person with a complaint.

Don't get me wrong, I hate whining and whiners with a passion. There is nothing more annoying than a person complaining out of proportion to a trouble.

..but the well poised, appropriate complaint is a thing of beauty.

I have never been with the endlessly cheery "just be grateful" crowd. It runs directly counter to the core of my being to let a problem stand unanswered. It's probably what keeps me doing well in school, I'm an engineering major so it's likely what will keep me going in life.

Something wrong...must fix.

That is my mindset in a nutshell.

It's why I joined the student government, it's why I work as a tutor, it's part of the reason I participate at America's Debate.

So something to learn about me, if you have a complaint.. I wouldn't just bother to hear it.

I want to hear it, so out with it.

I fixed a problem with the sidebar, which though it seemed to work fine with Firefox, wasn't so hot on IE.

Hopefully that's done if there is any problem with the site that bugs you, feel free to complain to your hearts content.

If there's anything I say at AD that gets on your nerves, PM me and we'll talk about it.

If those who know me personally have a problem with something I do or don't do, say so.

I like to know I'm making myself useful so the complaint box is officially open.

German Deadlock and North Korean Breakthrough

2005-09-19T10:41:00.000-05:00

...and you though the two party system was the only one vulnerable to close elections.
Stalemate after German election

So now the game is on to see what party, if any will lead Germany's government.

Afghanistan, the other nations holding an election recently has finished voting an tallies are expected next month. Although there were attacks on voters no deaths were reported.

..and finally a surprising bit of news from the hermit kingdom.
North Korea Says It Will End to Nuclear Program
The link goes to a WashingtonPost.com discussion that should start at 11:00a Central (12:00 Eastern) today to discuss that situation as well as Iran.

From the Post:
While Iran remains defiant over its nuclear program, North Korea announced that it will end its nuclear program in exchange for aid and recognition from the U.S. and its allies. The announcement came during the six party talks involving North Korea, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. The announcement marked the first breakthrough in the talks, which had stalled several times since they began in 2003.

Let's hope this lead to better security in the region and eventual hopes for the collapse of the North Korean ruling structure, so that North Korea could share in the prosperity and freedom that it's southern counterpart enjoys.

Afghan and German Elections

2005-09-17T21:17:00.000-05:00

At this very moment the Afghan people are engaged in an exercise to elect a parliamentary government. Results are due in next October because there are thousands of candidates and tens of thousands of stations to sort out. Even pre-results this will be a monumental event for Afghanistan which will have its first full democratic government by the end of this year.

A more established democracy in have early elections as well. Germany's government is in the balance with substantial economic and foreign policy implications.

An of course the UN World Summit ended in a "compromise" government. Compromise, as usual, means no bold reforms.

That said the results that did come through are substantial if not exactly controversial. The restructuring of the Human Rights Council into a commission which does not include rights violators in well on track
From the BBC:

The 35-page final document establishes a new Peacebuilding Commission to help countries make the transition from war to peace, and agrees there is an international responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.[...]

It sets up a new Human Rights Council, and condemns terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes" - though the summit failed to settle on a definition of terrorism.

Correspondents say disagreements have meant some of the anticipated advances have been dropped or watered down.
Link

and the student government blog is soon coming, certainly before the first senate meeting on Monday.

Moving Right Along...

2005-09-14T09:54:00.000-05:00

Yep, I'm still around.

I've been somewhat busy again with school and scheduling but I almost have things worked out to the point where I get at least a couple hours a week to think about blogging.....

...Enough of my lies let's get to some truths.

True: I figure I'm a shoe-in for student government, seeing as there where four slots for senator and four people running.

True: For any Oakwood students that happen to read this blog (Ha!) I'm be starting a separate blog just for my own reports from student government. At least once a week and when situations arise I will post a report. Suggestions and comments are welcome from anyone.

True: On the political side the UN World Summit has started and I'll be watching and blogging.

From the BBC:

Monarchs, presidents and prime ministers are attending the largest global summit in history at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
About 150 world leaders are at the 2005 World Summit, which marks 60 years since the founding of the UN.

The summit was preceded by bitter negotiations and an eventual compromise deal on plans for UN reform and proposals to tackle global poverty.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the watered-down deal was a "disgrace".
Link

So, heap-big summit with much tension off the bat, I'm all ears.

Look like the US government is pretty intent on not working to alleviate global poverty. Or rather they are committed to the goals, just not any specific way to accomplish them...

Stay tuned.

Astrodome Closed

2005-09-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'll assume you're relatively up to speed on the sinking of New Orleans. I'll do a back post on that as soon as I get my though together.

For now simply a heads up. The Astrodome over-estimated the amount of people it could hold and now several bus loads of refugees are without a place to stay. This situation is clearly entirely out of hand for now. I've been wondering whether there are any facilities in nearby Jackson, Miss.

Dallas and San Antonio are trying to find space as well.

Samurai Champloo

2005-08-31T10:13:00.000-05:00

Any anime fan wondering why I haven't posted has probably immediately got the picture from the title of this post.

For the uninitiated, I've been geeking out on an awesome series and after several days, have seen it in it's entirety.

Samurai Champloo at IMDb

Beautiful doesn't begin to describe this jewel, it's impressive without being flashy, hip without being pandering, heartfelt without being sappy. It isn't perfect, but it comes darned close.

Once again kicking the living life out of the vast majority of TV in the states.

The dialogue is perfect, at once laugh out loud funny and smart. The show runs along the lines of the culture clash between Japan and the west in the days of the first contacts and is thoroughly irreverent.

Hearing Japanese voice actors give impressions of an American accent will likely be a treat for those who wonder what we sound like to the speakers of non-latin languages.

That and other qualities make it worth the hassle to watch this show in Japanese with the subtitles. The dub is great as well, but there's something about a rapping Samurai that sounds better in his native language.

The characters are stereotypical and yet complex. There is appeal in their predictable motives, while their thoroughly unpredictable actions kept the viewer guessing.

The ending seems a bit forced, though it's still appealing, but the show is, quite literally, more about the journey than the destination.

A must see for anyone who likes to laugh, a samurai epic not one moment ahead (or behind) its time.

Iraqi Draft Constitution

2005-08-24T21:08:00.000-05:00

The AP has finally completed a full English translation of the draft constitution circulating in the Iraqi Parliament.

There has been a lot of hand wringing over this, but read it for yourself and I think you'll find it is quite and enlightened.

It creates a state that is certainly distinct from Western democracies and some of that distinction may well be an improvement.

It's far from perfect, as is any constitution, but it does enshrine democratic government and human rights.
Link to Full Text

So.. here we are again...

2005-08-23T20:22:00.000-05:00

Alright, transition complete. I am now back in a college dorm with morning classes and high-speed internet.

This means many things, most of them good. In particular it means that I won't have to deal with dial-up for a few more months.

Thank heaven for small favors.

On the down side, I now owe the Feds money but they've promised not come around looking for money until I graduate.

That's reasonable, how I wish the private sector could be so giving. The college wants monthly payments, eating into my pizza money, the fiends.

At this rate I might have to consume something healthy every week or so.

New theory:

It's all a plot to reduce the obesity rate among college students, it's not working.

Transition Period

2005-08-15T17:53:00.000-05:00

I'm fine.. I'm fine. Just a little busy is all.

I'll be working this week on preparations for the return to school which mostly explains both why I haven't been updating and why I am often hard to get it touch with by other means.

No worries. I should be moving back into the dorm this weekend, God willing. Once things settle down all normal action may continue.

Until then I'll be fretting and making phone calls like every year.

Oh, and I saw the new Deuce Bigelow movie.

It was, of course, utterly despicable, but also quite funny. The movie Bad Santa should have been. I wouldn't see it twice and I wouldn't recommend it to the squeamish or even reasonably moral.

The degenerates among us however would love it.

Robin Cook (1946-2005)

2005-08-07T14:33:00.000-05:00

I admit, although I'm hard to surprised, this news shocked me.

Robin Cook, former UK foreign secretary and leader in opposition to Iraq War passed yesterday.

In learning about and debating the Iraq war have had occasion to read and promptly disagree with many of Mr. Cook's views on the international stage, but all disagreements aside it was clear that this was a singularly intelligent and influential individual.

A man does not speak with conviction like his merely in an effort to garner popularity, there was clear integrity at work in his words.

I don't know much about British politics, but I do know he will be missed.

Galloway Shows His Brilliance

2005-08-04T10:27:00.000-05:00

Remember how I said in the original Galloway post that the man didn't really have his facts straight.

Well, here he is again ruining a perfectly good show of confronting the Senate with at least a partially truthful testimony by demonstrating idiocy on a monumental scale.
From the BBC:

These poor Iraqis ... with the lightest and most basic of weapons - are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars[...]"It can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world against American hegemony."
-George Galloway

Gee, maybe I should thank the people that have callously targeted thousands of Iraqi civilians for murder. Thank them for blowing up the water facilities, the Red Cross, and the UN.

Thanks for killing Margaret Hassan guys, that'll teach those lousy Americans.

"Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad.
"The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will.

"The daughters are crying for help and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters."

Link
Someone please stop electing this moron.

..and they call Bush stupid....

"Over There" Overhyped?

2005-07-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

So I watched the premiere of "Over There" an FX (fictional) series on soldiers in Iraq last night and don't see what all the hubub would be about.

Not to say that it's a bad show, it was sort of interesting. It may grow too sentimental and relationship-based to hold my interest but the viewing public seems to like that so.... like... whatever...

I don't see where it's disrespectful of the military personnel serving in Iraq. As long as these aren't taken as the archetypical soldiers in people's minds (doubtful, I'm guessing most people don't so much as get FX) all should be well.

Karl Rove

2005-07-24T09:17:00.000-05:00

When I included politics as one of my "interests" in this blog, I knew I had to say that just so that people would understand this blog wouldn't focus much on the latest news from Tinseltown.

That said, politics is pretty much uninteresting as far as it is alone. I am interested in public policy, ie decisions by politicians which affect the larger reality.

That should explain why despite the "furor" over the Karl rove story you haven't heard me say a word about it.

The story is short:
Policy implications= Zero

Whether Karl Rove is shipped of to Alcatraz or wins the lottery really doesn't matter so I won't concern myself or this blog with it.

I don't waste my time....

Well I do, but that's an entirely different matter.

Anyway, I won't waste yours.

Shedding A Little Light on London

2005-07-22T17:28:00.000-05:00

Listen to NPR?

You should. I don't care what you've heard a person who listens to "Morning Edition","All Things Considered", "The World" etc. Is a more informed person.

The net is great and has largely made TV news obsolete, but it still hasn't quite caught up to NPR. Besides they have a website for all you webheads with Broad band.

http://www.npr.org

Go, Listen, Learn.

But enough of that, let me tell you what I heard lately on NPR.

It is becoming common for people to speak of London's Muslim community from the outside yelling in so to speaks. NPR gave the the heads up on the BBC's Asian Network. Many of Britain's Muslims are of South Asian origin. The bombers themselves were Pakistani.

The Asian Network plays Asian music and also includes news with occasional input from the Asian community.

The chance for first-hand voices from a little understood community may well be valuable.

Appendicitis...Brief Hiatus

2005-07-19T10:52:00.000-05:00

If there is one thing I can be always faulted for it's organization. Try as I might (or might not... whatever) scheduling seems to be an unattainable goal. This week an unwanted appointment forced its way in. Minor surgery.

Sunday morning I had my appendix removed, which sort of put a damper on things. I'm back at home and will spend a week or two recovering before I'm back at full again.

Ah well...

London Bombings

2005-07-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

Although this blog, like its owner, takes a facts based approach to commentary on the news....

...and facts are a little thin concerning Thursday's murderous attacks in London. I would be absolutely remiss to stay silent on the issue.

It is as it was.

We have seen since 9/11 major attacks in Madrid, Istanbul, Bali, Casablanca, Baghdad, Islamabad and Nairobi. Such a wide cross-section of humanity could not have been chosen better purposefully and perhaps it was.

This merely cements the fact that the War on Terrorism, for it is a war will spare no corner of the globe.

Do not fall into the trap of seeing this as another attack on "The West."

There has been a tendency for apologists to remark that these attacks are merely revenge for collateral damage in Western ventures but the targets lists show hat lie for what it is.

What collateral damage did Turkey, Morocco, and Kenya cause lately?

Killings of civilians by accident in a war is moral worlds away from purposefully murdering those who had no interest in fighting.

This is a judgment call, yes. It is one I can repeat with absolute certainty however.

If others choose to operate by different morals and if their viewpoint precipitates actions like we saw in London on Thursday then let there be no mistaking the proper response.

This is not the time to equivocate. If the defense of our moral standard against there's is to become violent then so be it.

Does violence solve the underlying issue? No of course not

No more than prison can stop the underlying issues of serial killers. But violence can stop thoughts from becoming actions and that is the tack we must take.

Gearing up for G8

2005-07-05T17:03:00.000-05:00

I trust everyone stateside had a fine Fourth of July Weekend. I know I did. The less I do on a holiday the finer it is.

Anyone tune into Live 8?

Commentary is welcome.

Meanwhile the G8 Summit in Scotland is ready to start tomorrow full coverage (or whatever I feel like droning about) will be available.

The famed protestors are getting ready too, this ought to be interesting...

Live 8 Begins Tomorrow!

2005-07-01T14:27:00.000-05:00

I should have given everyone more notice but I've been a bit busy and this is outside my area of expertise.

Live 8 is, of course, a huge group of worldwide concerts ahead of the G8 summit in Scotland.

I on the other hand am only of moderate size with two left feet and a tin ear.

That said, everyone who's interested should definitely have a chance to get involved.

If you haven't heard about this one the cave is not for you, my friend.

This is going to be the largest global broadcast in history.

Web links are forth coming.
Live 8 site

Full Coverage form the BBC

Yahoo! News Coverage

Bush To Address the Nation

2005-06-28T15:12:00.000-05:00

Heads up on the presidential address at 8 pm Eastern Time this evening. I'll be tuning in and I hope you will too, stay informed kids...

That said it would be leagues better if he were to make it a press conference and engage in such question and answer sessions more often.

If he let's the media set the agenda on Iraq, he's going to get pounded. He should point out that bombing are not the only (or even the most important) thing going on in Iraq.

The administration is far too afraid of the media.

Iraqi "Freedom Fighters" Hard at Work

2005-06-26T10:10:00.000-05:00

From the BBC:

On the outskirts of Baghdad, workmen have been toiling frantically to repair a huge broken water main.
It was blown up by insurgents at the weekend. They knew exactly where to place the charge for maximum damage. It has taken out the water supply for more than half of Baghdad.

..and people still suffer under the delusion this is a popular rebellion. I'm sure the guys who cut off the water supply to a city in a desert country in the middle of summer, repeatedly (they did this last year too) are the life of the party...

News from 'Planet Z': KKK peacelovers!

2005-06-21T14:34:00.000-05:00

It is a rising opinion of mine that some Americans, chose to live in separate imagined reality not our own. How else could sentences like:

In morning testimony, the former mayor of this small east Alabama town, Harlan Majure, testified as a character witness for the defense.
Under cross-examination, Majure, who was mayor in the 1990s, said he was not aware Killen was a member of the white-supremacist group, but that the part-time preacher's Klan membership would not change his opinion.
Majure said the Klan "did a lot of good up here" and said he was not personally aware of the organization's bloody past.
"I know some things about the Ku Klux Klan that a lot of people don't know," he said. "As far as I know it's a peaceful organization."
Link

Make any ummm....sense....?

Cue the theme from the "Twilight Zone...

There are those living among you who are not of this earth...

More from Wolfowitz

2005-06-19T21:27:00.000-05:00

The man is on the job for what... a month?

..and he already sees what the Bush administration (and the US government in general) hasn't for years.

From the BBC:

The new head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, has called for a big increase in US aid to Africa.
Mr Wolfowitz's comments came at the end of his first visit to the continent.

He signalled that he was willing to put pressure on Washington to increase aid, even to the point of reaching the international target - 0.7% GDP.

The move would mean more than trebling the US aid budget. Mr Wolfowitz also said he would like to see an end to farm subsidies.
Link

The fact that a Paul Wolfowitz could see the need for a change in policy so quickly says volumes about our current failures.

UN Report and "Batman"

2005-06-16T17:13:00.000-05:00

So you had to wait a day...

The congressional report on the UN, as advertised.
Available on this page or directly (as a 3MB PDF) at the link below.

Full Report

So what was I doing yesterday?

Doing my telephone act (I dislike telephones, with a vengeance) and going to see Batman Begins.

How was it?

Suprisingly good actually. Clearly not the budget bankbuster Spiderman and its sequel was, but what lacks in pizazz (not much really). It more than makes up for in an excellent story.

Cool Batman villains come to call as usual, familiar names and good fight scenes.

If you think you would ever be interested in any movie on a comic book character go see it.

Saddam Video Released

2005-06-13T14:19:00.000-05:00

A new video of the interrogation of Saddam Hussein regarding war crimes during his reign has been released. Any of the handy news sites I link to on the right side of the page should have their own streaming feed.

Haven't had time to see it myself, I'll get around to it.

A congressional report on United Nations Reform has been released to the press. I'll have a link here as soon as it's made public on Wednesday.

The end is near...

2005-06-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

I know what you're all saying out there, you don't need to spell it out.

Turnea doesn't post anymore, he's lost the love, sold out to man!

It ain't true folks. I have been working at getting a job, which I think is going well, God willing I start this week, but it doesn't mean I've forgotten to run my mouth.

I found out that a local library has the movies "City of God" and "Maria Full of Grace" while lying in wait for those to be returned so as I can't swoop in and enjoy I picked up Guns, Germs, and Steel a Pulitzer Prize winner by Jared Diamond on cultural histories and why some areas of the world became dominate industrial powers and some were interrupted at various points en route.

So far so good, I'll give the recommendation (or not) when I'm about finished.

New News?

Kuwait appoints its first woman minister in the government (yay!), 18 poor nations are getting their unpayable debts canceled and wonder of I wonder what's going on...

Apple is switching to Intel.

..and here I am letting my subscription to MacAddict lapse. I need information! Where am I? Who am I?!

Vital Information

2005-06-07T19:37:00.000-05:00

I try not to post unless I've got something good. All of you information addicts out here know the mainstream media wouldn't know "good" if it jumped up and bit them in a sensitive area.

As a results we get treated to hours of coverage on the watershed moments of our time.

You know... medical marijuana and the Michael Jackson trial.

I refuse to play messenger to the irrelevant!

By now you realize I'm cloaking my laziness in principle. This ability is one of life's great lessons, learn it well.

Our public officials have made great use of this principle. Case in point Tony Blair was in Washington today visiting Bush over aid to Africa and debt relief.

Characteristically Bush announced an already allocated donation of a few hundred mill as if it were somehow news.

Whopee, George is finally choosing to actually give a tiny portion of the funds he promised.

Ah well, the battle continues...

Finished "The End of Poverty"

Go read it, no matter what your politics you won't regret it.

Return to Normalcy

2005-06-04T16:40:00.000-05:00

I'm baaaaack!

Took a wonderful trip to New York and got to see all sorts of interesting things.

Highlight of the trip, in my opinion, was an informative and interesting tour of the United Nations. I also got to visit the World Trade Center site, hang around in Times Square and Central Park and all manner of other distinctly New York things to do.

Someone is pointing out I didn't blog. Someone should know I forgot the charger to my phone...

Well, let bygones be bygones. If I get any good pics I'll post them in.

Good to be scrutinizing the headliners again after that a little break.

Look out world, Turnea is back and he's full of beans!

On the Road Again...

2005-05-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

Loose ends are becoming tied at an alarming rate here at Hot Seat headquarters (hereafter to be referred to as HTHQ 'cause it's better).

Grades are in and good enough, employment for the summer looks secured.

Oh, and I got a car.

I know that those of you who live in metropolitan areas with highly fuctional mass transportation can contain your enthusiasm. For the rest of America, getting a car (used '99 Malibu as it may be) is roughly the equivalent of being reincarnated as a vastly more powerful being.

It's a good thing.

I should be headed up to New York for a short vacation soon, I might try the Audioblogger deal from there just for kicks. I'll be sure to stay in touch.

What's New?

2005-05-26T13:39:00.000-05:00

Were have I been you ask?

Busy.

Cementing my academic future, seeking gainful employment, reading and greatly enjoying "The End of Poverty."

If a book gets me to put down Heinlein, it's gotta be good.

News is middling, new "Amnesty International" report pretty upset over Gitmo and prisoner abuse.
America's Debate is all over it as usual.

A new Iraqi-led offensive in Baghdad which I wish all the best for.

I might be going to New York soon, which should provide me with fresh material, that would leave LA as the last trademark American metropolis I've not been to I figure.

Suggestions?

Galloway Uncut

2005-05-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

C-span has finally made streaming realvideo of MP George Galloway's testimony before a Senate committee. It makes for highly interesting viewing whatever your political leanings.

Go check it out.

Also, I found the link to a new blog by the name of: Doc's Rant.

New News and New Blogs!

2005-05-20T14:58:00.000-05:00

How do people?

First up we've got new blogs to add to our list, the newest of which is a blog by a fellow AD'er and Canadian commentator by the name (as far as these netnames go) of UltimateJoe.

It's new, if its anything like his debate posts it'll be good... go read it.

What do ya' need, directions?

Yes? Well here: Joe's Blog

Another blog to add to that list soon as I find the link both will be in the listing on the sidebar soon.

The "new news" you ask!

Whip out the offering plate fellas, we dun landed a convert.

Economic development key to ending tyranny - US' Wolfowitz

Welcome to reality, brother!

"The End of Poverty"

2005-05-20T10:39:00.000-05:00

Well I finally gotten hold of Jeffrey Sach's long awaited (hey I waited a long time) explanation of why millions of people don't really have to die every year due to poverty and what we as nations and individuals can do about it.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
by Jeffrey Sachs

For the cash-strapped like myself check out your local large library and see if they've gotten copies in just yet

It's easy to find just searching for ISBN: 1594200459 on any web catalog, or just search the normal way.

For those interested in a buy Amazon has some in stock.

Less that $20 which by what I've read so far is one heck of a bargain.

Required reading for those interested in international affairs and economic development.

.

Galloway Follow-up

2005-05-18T09:36:00.000-05:00

As promised I have a transcript of Galloway's opening tirade and a link to a video that should be pretty enlightening. Neither is full, but they have the important bits.
Transcript
Video Link

The man may not have all his facts straight but you can't fault him for gumption.

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

Atlanta Shooting Gets an Interesting Twist...

2005-05-17T12:48:00.000-05:00

What, in the name of all that is holy, is going through this man's mind?

Brian Nichols pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple counts stemming from a deadly March shooting spree that began in an Atlanta courthouse.

Link

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these muders were committed in a crowded courthouse while the man was surrounded by witnesses including several law enforcement officers.

I suspect this is merely a poorly disguised insanity plea ;)

Kuwaiti Women Get Voting Rights

2005-05-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

Kuwait's Parliament granted full political rights to women on Monday, making way for them to vote and run for office in parliamentary and local elections for the first time in the country's history. The surprise amendment to Kuwait's election law ends a decades-long struggle by women's rights campaigners for full suffrage, and promises to redefine the city-state's political landscape.

Link

Galloway on the Offensive

2005-05-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

News is finally picking up with one the more interesting stories being the appearance of British MP George Galloway before the Senate committee on the "Oil-for-Food" scandal.

Galloway was, to understate things is a most dramatic fashion, quite feisty in his own defense. I'll get a transcript or, even better, video or audio up as soon as possible because this is not to be missed.

Mr Galloway, who traveled to Washington in a bid to clear his name, went on the offensive from the beginning of his testimony.

He said he had met Saddam Hussein on two occasions - the same number of times as US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and maps - the better to target those guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war," he said

.

Link
just a sample....

In other news, efforts to expand the UN Security Council are under way, with Germany, Japan, Brazil and India eying permanent seats and veto power while China and the US stand in their way.
Germany Starts UN Reform Resolution

Updates on both as soon as information becomes available.

Education Denial

2005-05-12T09:34:00.000-05:00

This Just in... Underfunded schools do in fact exist.

If it weren't so serious it would be funny. For millions of Americans the fact that many rural and urban public schools are woefully underfunded is a blindingly obvious fact everyday life....

...but when the ideological politicians get word the cries are loud and predictable.

"Throwing money at the problem is not the solution!"

"We already spend too much on education!"

and the even more mind-boggling

"We should leave education to he private sector!"

Some of my best friends are libertarians, but every once in a while one has to wonder what planet people who say such things are living on. On my Earth, the difference between a well-funded and underfunded school is abundantly clear, I've seen both up close and personal.

The minute some of those in power catch on fiscal conservatism is called forth like some ancient demon from the netherealms.

Does is rear its ugly head when the time comes for political perks, porkbarrel spending and the like?

Why good heavens no! Stinginess is reserved for less important concerns....

Our nation's children.
Equalization of City Schools Is Abandoned

More on Somalia

2005-05-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

...well that didn't take half as long as I thought. Here's the info on the canadian soildiers tried in the murder of Shiadane Arone.

From "Maclean's" 3/27/95, Vol. 108 Issue 13, p27

Capt. Michael Sox, the last Canadian soldier tried in a series of courts martial stemming from the March, 1993, beating death of 16-year-old Shidane Arone in Somalia, was found guilty of negligent performance of duty after a trial at the Canadian Forces Base in Petawawa, Ont. The charge carries a maximum penalty of dismissal with disgrace, followed by imprisonment for up to two years less a day.

5/9/94, Vol. 107 Issue 19, p21

The main figure in the vicious torture and beating death of a Somali teenager last year will probably never stand trial for his actions. The Canadian Armed Forces judge advocate in the case, Col. Guy Brais, said that Master Cpl. Clayton Matchee, who was charged with second-degree murder, torture and negligent performance of duty, was unfit to be tried..[...] Matchee is unable to understand the nature and purpose of the court martial because of the severe brain damage he suffered after attempting to hang himself in a holding cell at the Canadian Airborne Regiment compound in Somalia[...] Sgt. Mark Boland. After Boland pleaded guilty to negligent performance of duty in relation to Arone's death, a statement of facts was read into the record. Among other things, the statement said that Matchee ``systematically beat'' Arone with a wooden baton, a metal bar, his fists and his boots, and that he ``burned the soles of Arone's feet with a cigar or cigarette.''

That is, of course, in addition to Kyle Brown who was mentioned in the previous post. He is the only soldier to recieve a significant sentence.

Prisoner Abuse Perspective

2005-05-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

I've taken up another unofficial research project, this time on the scope of prisoner and other military abuses. After hearing a report on the CBC about the murder of a Somali prisoner back in '93 by Canadian soldiers I started to look into what other recent examples of prisoner abuse to see if I could get some perspective.

There are plenty of unanswered questions here. In the Somalia case (the torture and death of Shidane Arone) the first peacekeeper convicted on charges of manslaughter and torture served three years of his five year term before getting out on parole. I'm looking in to the others, I'm not sure if they were even imprisoned.

Senior officers and government officials tried to cover thing up. Belgian and Italian were also accused of torture.

A sample of what I've got so far.
Photo's Reveal Belgian Paratroopers' Abuse
Somali Inquiry (Canada)

There is also the current furor over sex abuse by peacekeepers in DR Congo and Liberia as well.
Shuffling through newspaper reports in going to take more time, I'll probably go with the larger question of prisoner abuse to America's Debate soon enough...

Which way did he go, George?

2005-05-06T11:47:00.000-05:00

I Live!!

In all honesty I've been alive for a while yet, but the blog has not seen much activity and I promise to change that rather soon. I could blame the slow news spell, the fact that last week was finals week at school.

Although both have played their part the laziness of summer rears it ugly head as well.

..but that shall soon be over, the time for rapid-fire posting is nigh!

Updates...

2005-04-24T16:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a slow week or so. I've got nothing urgent for you just yet. I did a couple of days ago but I forgot what it was exactly. It will come back to me, another philosophical rant on absolutes. Prepare yourself, until then neat NPR link. National Poetry Month is with us.

Poetry Month: 'Totally Like Whatever'

Aid Updates

2005-04-14T14:37:00.000-05:00

It's been a slow week, huh folks?

Bush making himself look dumb with a slew of poor appointment decisions. Is there not one qualified person in this country?

..but enough of that.

I'm going to hit on foreign aid and the horrid American policy thereof.

A lot of people think America is the most generous nation in the world, I'm sorry to inform them otherwise.

It would take a serious stretch of the term generosity to describe this policy.

As of 2004 less than one fifth of US foreign aid went to Africa, the poorest continent on the planet.

In general America gives about one third of its aid to the "poorest" and "least developed" countries according to NationMaster

The US often notes it is the world's biggest foreign aid donor. The question is where the is aid going. Only about half goes to development and humanitarian aid.

If we don't include Iraq and Afghanistan and instead look to normal US aid spending the biggest recipient nations are again not the poorest.

Israel
Egypt
Jordan

So only about half of the less than 1% of GNP our country spends on foreign aid goes to where it is most needed.
Source Link(PDF)

What, you might ask? Less than 1% of the budget on foreign aid?

Correct, less than half a penny out of every dollar.

The US is not the only country with an anemic foreign aid policy.

It is possible to save millions of lives and eradicate extreme poverty in our world, but with nonsense like this people will continue to die for no reason. Some African nations will continue to provide havens for terrorists.

Osama Bin Laden spent his fair share of time in Sudan you know.

The choice is clear if we want to end poverty we must force our government to act like it.

The Trouble with Doublespeak

2005-04-09T19:26:00.000-05:00

Let's start things off with the obligatory news clip:

From the BBC:

Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through Baghdad denouncing the US occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Demonstrators loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied in the square where the ousted Iraqi leader's statue was toppled in 2003.
Link

I can't really blame the Iraqis who have been fed the line about occupation and the evil Americans from birth, but the BBC should know to be more clear.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the US is not occupying Iraq. Not all foreign military presence can be termed occupation. It is a very specific status with clearly defined obligations. The US ceased to occupy Iraq almost a year ago, when the Coalition Provisional Authority(CPA) ceased to exist and was replace by the Iraqi Interim Government(IIG).

Incidentally the IIG is about to be replaced by a second elected interim goverment. For clarity's sake I will list the definition of occupation which supposedly applies to this situation.

Invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces.
The military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory.

Link

The CPA was, in its time, a military government which controlled Iraq. It was run from the Pentagon. It no longer exists. The Iraqi interim government has controlled Iraq's affairs since then, hence no occupation.

The problem comes because occupation is a loaded term, especially in the Middle East. It harkens back to true occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. Israelis are bad, Israelis are occupiers. Americans are occupiers, Americans are bad.

That simple, the power of the pejorative.

I had a debate on a similarly misapplied term: Neoconservative or neocon. Unlike "occupation" neocon has ceased to become a truly descriptive term at all.

The dictionary definition highlights the absurdity of all this

neoconservativism
n : an approach to politics or theology that represents a return to a traditional point of view (in contrast to more liberal or radical schools of thought of the 1960s)
Link

Didn't we already have name for this? We call them conservatives.

Instead of signifying what it really means neocon is now the new media friendly slur against any Republican hawks. It is almost never used positively.

It is a perfect tool for propaganda just like "occupation." A word entirely composed of connotation.

The power of suggestion is a dangerous thing.

My point: Try to use terms that actually mean something, resist the buzzwords and the political discourse will be the better for it.

Home Alone (With Michael Jackson...)

2005-04-08T18:40:00.000-05:00

No...

From the BBC:

A former chef employed by Michael Jackson in 1991 has told a court he once saw the pop star fondling child actor Macaulay Culkin.
Link

Struck dumb as I am? This'll fix that:

"I was shocked and almost dropped the French fries," the cook added, explaining he had gone to the actor's room at Neverland Ranch to deliver a late-night snack.

I honestly have no idea if this is true. If so, it is a horrible terrible, wrong.

If not the chef's testimony is, quite possibly, the funniest thing ever uttered by the clearly deranged beings that inhabit this planet.

Once more for posterity

"I was shocked and almost dropped the French fries,"

I got nothing folks...

The Ball is (officially) Rolling!

2005-04-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

Well after a couple of months Iraq finally has a new, democratically-elected, government.

The Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari was appointed today. The old PM Iyad Allawi has officially resigned but will continue handling affairs until Jaafari names his cabinet.

Jaafari has also promised not to push Sharia as the only basis for Iraqi law and to respect gender and religious freedoms.

Aid Joke

2005-04-04T20:58:00.000-05:00

I posted a comment in the "Afghan Warrior" blog I was pretty pleased with. To be clear, I am most pleased with my communication skills when I think I've made a decent joke, Here's the bit, a play on an earlier comment:

I feel a jolt of realism coming on, I think I'll give a more realistic analogy of how foreign aid often goes:

A young woman was driving on a Kabul road when here car had a flat. She pulls over to the side of the road, exits her car and waves for help.

A week later an American looks up and sees a clearly distressed young lady gnawing on her vehicle. He pulls over, considers getting out of the car and opts instead to yell from a slightly cracked window.

"There's a spare on the back, go ahead and take it"

The young woman overcome with happiness eagerly grabs the tire. A thought occurs to her.

"Pardon me sir, but I don't have a jack, I see one in your backseat, may I borrow it?"

The American thinks this over for a moment and responds.

"I'm sorry, but I really can't offer you any more aid until I see better results with the tire I gave you."

The stunned woman protests at which point the American tosses a granola bar from his dash.

"Here that ought to hold you over until you change that tire."

Whereupon he swiftly pulls off.

So, should I quit my day job or what?

Summer Break

2005-04-04T19:08:00.001-05:00

In most of the world last week was one serious snore fest. I mean come now, we got treated to
"up-to-the-minute" coverage of some lady who skipped out on her wedding. I would much rather see the public pelting of all the news editors who thought coverage of this "event" was a good idea.

Let the last network to stop covering said nonsense receive the first rotten egg.

For me it was finals week, hence a bit hectic and busy. It contributed to the long post gap around here but it is no more!

I am officially out for the summer and hopefully that means more blogging goodness. I plan to try out that Audioblogger...thingy..... soon on my brand new neat cell phone (it's got a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, I love doodads.)

Just a heads up that all is not quite on the front, at least not for long.

Iraq Updates and Some Irrelevancy

2005-04-04T19:08:00.000-05:00

First of all, I was wrong again (must be like the third time this year, I'm really slowing down).

Ghazi Al-Yawer will not be Iraq's Assembly speaker he turned down the job offer. Instead we have Hajim Al-Hassani Al-Yawer's party member and frequent critic of US forces (sorry puppet government theorists...)

Next meeting is Wed. when hopefully they will finally form a government at get the ball rolling on a consitution. I suppose it's best they get all the wrangling over now rather than then...

Moving right along, I picked up this quiz link at another blog ("The Wertz Generation" another AD'er and generally an interesting blogger/debater).

I like net quizzes, it kills time I could spend working or some other such nonsense, enjoy.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion		40%
Stability		66%
Orderliness		40%
Empathy		70%
Interdependence		56%
Intellectual		76%
Mystical		36%
Artistic		30%
Religious		70%
Hedonism		10%
Materialism		50%
Narcissism		36%
Adventurousness		70%
Work ethic		23%
Self absorbed		50%
Conflict seeking		83%
Need to dominate		30%

Romantic		30%
Avoidant		70%
Anti-authority		70%
Wealth		16%
Dependency		56%
Change averse		43%
Cautiousness		56%
Individuality		43%
Sexuality		50%
Peter pan complex		36%
Physical security		50%
Food indulgent		50%
Histrionic		43%
Paranoia		43%
Vanity		36%
Hypersensitivity		30%
Female cliche		23%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Take it Easy

2005-04-01T14:43:00.000-06:00

So comes the end of another beauty of a week. I love Fridays, I go to my single class in the morning and the rest of the day is in my hands. And so four hours later and happily filled with Taco Bell here I sit.

The weather is wonderful as far as I'm concerned (pauses to look at the dark clouds threatening rain outside his window) I don't mind rain as long as things warm up around here. I move we shorten winter to three weeks surrounding Christmas and call the rest a wash.

Need to get to work on engineering projects in the upcoming week, look into a summer job, have my classes line up for fall. Spring cleaning for the professional student.

Today, however, I'll watch the storm and research Poverty Reduction. Note the new link to the Millennium Campaign.

Oh and I can't leave without pointing out the nifty script I found that let's you host New York Times headlines on your site. The Washington Post has a similar service. Yet another reason to start your day with a visit to the Hot Seat. Next might come a little audio fun.

Who loves ya, baby?

McDonald's Owns You....

2005-03-29T18:21:00.000-06:00

Is anyone else afraid? Not only has popular rap gone from poetic exposition of urban black life to thinly veiled product placements and celebration of anti-social self-destructive behavior.

Now they're even being open about it.
From the BBC
McDonald's has offered to pay top hip hop artists to incorporate the 'Big Mac' into their song lyrics. According to Advertising Age magazine, the fast food chain will pay rappers up to £2.80 ($5) every time a song namechecking the burger is played.
Link

Yes, that's right McDonald's is offering to pay rappers to pimp their burgers. Maybe Ludacris could do a track featuring Ronald McDonald. That I would watch.

You can bet I will be watching closely to see which chump actually tries this.

Many people would be upset about this, I'm content to watch the circus.

Bring on the clowns!

Race Reflections

2005-03-28T10:03:00.000-06:00

It's been almost a week and I shouldn't leave ya hanging for that long I suppose. The student government thing is in progress. I've decided to give them time to explain themselves, I just hope they will use this opportunity to do so.

In the mean time, more important issues.

Next promising topic on AD looks like a race debate.

Brief thoughts on race in America
This is a function of the usual problem, no one wants to talk about it.

When it comes to discussion of controversial topics (the very topics that benefit most from discussion) many if not most people are pretty cowardly.

My guess is because most people know they do not think through their opinions to come to reasonable conclusions. They would prefer there argument never face any critical reviews.

This is balanced by the fact that some people, usually the aggrieved are going to bring the topic up for discussion. It is the person with a problem that calls for help.

The non-aggrieved, in the case of race in America these are generally white people, on the other hand simply become defensive and deny there is any problem with the system. They instead run to another common mistake, look for the cheapest "solution."

Some people have a bad habit of blaming "black culture" for disproportionate poverty and crime. Ask most black people about this and you will see a very confused look.

This is because African-American "culture" is for all practical purposes identical to the larger American culture.

I always wonder at calls for assimilation, on my planet black people are assimilated. :P

I'll stop yammering for now.

Promises of more regular updates as usual.

Student Government Spending Spree

2005-03-22T12:40:00.000-06:00

Away from our regularly scheduled political programming here's something a bit more personal.

I am a sophomore at Oakwood College a (relatively) pleasant Seventh-Day Adventist College in Huntsville, AL.

Like most institutions of higher learning we have the opportunity to form our own student government body of sorts.

Now, I'm not quite sure what they do, their names are all over the monthly events and every once in a while they host Church services but other than that the group is a little quiet.

I think I just saw why. In the grand American tradition of pork-barrel spending the United Student Movement has earmarked $3000 to pay for an "Eternal Flame" type monument outside the Library.

"How Nice!" You may say.

Understand something, the students of Oakwood College get excuses about a lack of funds every time we turn around. Everything from pest infestations to leaky toilets continue to be noted year after year.

People, $3000 dollars can buy a lot of toilet paper, it's BYOTP around these parts.

The student of Oakwood College are, in general, not wealthy. That $3000 dollars could have made all the difference for at least a couple students. Hey, put it in a piggy bank for all I care, just don't throw it at some useless decoration when there are better things to do.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

Actually, keep the ears, but post comment to your heart's content so I know whether or not something can be done about this.

More Later

UN Reform Proposal

2005-03-21T12:02:00.000-06:00

I've always had mixed feelings about Kofi Annan as UN secretary general. On the one hand it is certainly good to see an African face in such an influential position, it casts light on what I see as the forgotten continent.

On the other hand such irresponsible positions as casting blame on the US for the bombing of the UN mission in Iraq, after said mission rejected US security details has certainly lead me to doubt his ability not to let emotion cloud his reasoning.

This may be a major weight in the positive direction.

From the new proposal for reform of the United Nations:

Five years into the new millennium, we have it in our power to pass on to our children a brighter inheritance than that bequeathed to any previous generation. We can halve global poverty and halt the spread of major known diseases in the next 10 years. We can reduce the prevalence of violent conflict and terrorism. We can increase respect for human dignity in every land. And we can forge a set of updated international institutions to help humanity achieve these noble goals. If we act boldly and if we act together we can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights.

Finally someone speaks in the language of progress rather than stagnation. I like an official who can say "we can" rather than "my opponents won't let me!"

Those watching the story will see much coverage of the aspects of the report to do with the West.

Expanding the Security Council
A international definition and accord on terrorism
Better definitions to the requirements for approved use of military force. etc.

Here at the Hot Seat I encourage you the read the whole report including the part which may well be more earth-shaking if the proposal in embraced.

I speak of the Millennium Project Goals, they portion of the report that could "halve major poverty" and "halt major diseases" potentially saving millions of lives.

I won't try to swallow this elephant in one post, but something to think about.

If is would cost the "rich world" pennies on the dollar to end severe poverty worldwide, should they do it?

A link to the report in full, a 1MB PDF document.
Link

The US a terrorist State?

2005-03-19T21:04:00.001-06:00

Only at America's Debate can a topic which would surely be doomed to the death of a flame war, instead turn into a reasonably intelligent eleven page (to this point) discussion.

This time the hot topic is whether or not the actions of terrorists are substantially different from the actions of terrorists.

This, of course, speaks to the more basic debate over whether the intent of an action weighs significantly in its nature, or whether only results matter.

I have weighed in only a little, leaving this to poster with more defined positions. I reject the notion that US soldiers are terrorists (except for a few who knowingly cross the line).

To compare the bombing of Iraq which targeted military installations and personnel with the bombing we have seen of the Red Cross and the murder of aid workers like Margaret Hassan...

...is simply willful distortion of the truth so that those who disagree with current administration policy can engage in the same "black-and-white" reasoning that the accuse George Bush of.

Nevertheless, some people do differ in their opinion thus the debate.

Protest Fun

2005-03-18T19:03:00.000-06:00

Something has tipped me off that South Koreans are pretty darn passionate about protest.

From our old standby the BBC:

Visitors to South Korea could be forgiven for thinking the country was on the verge of war.

Newspaper headlines accuse Japan of a new invasion for claiming sovereignty over a cluster of disputed islands.

Overwhelmed by fury, protesters have sliced off fingers, set themselves on fire, and in one case committed suicide by jumping off a bridge.

What are they so upset about?

The dispute over Dokdo, or Takeshima as the islands are known in Japan, is a perennial irritant to better relations.

The islands are remote and uninhabited, lying about half way between the two countries.

But they sit among rich fishing grounds and there is much talk of potential gas deposits in the area.
Link

So South Korea gets a little upset over nuclear weapons and tons of conventional artillery aimed them by their neighbor to the north.

But start threatening their fish and some hypothetical gas rigs by claiming a couple uninhabited islands and people start lighting themselves on fire.

Where's the perspective folks?

Iraqi Government Outlook

2005-03-18T13:19:00.000-06:00

Head up of the date of the formation of the new Iraqi government. Looks like March 26.

Names still look lined up as in previous post.

PM: Jafaari

President: Talabani

Hopefully they can hurry to the constitution.

Iraq Assembly Meets Today

2005-03-16T17:16:00.001-06:00

Well the newly elected Iraqi MPs have finally been sworn in. That said, the government is yet to be formed. Arguments are, predictably over the state of the peshmerga (the Kurdish militia) and the status of Kirkuk. In the oldest of democratic tradition the Kurds are milking their votes for all their worth.

At some point the costs of delay are going to outweigh immediate benefits and they will get on with it.

Oh and like I done told you, Jafaari looks set for PM.

Let's test my prediction abilities a little further (since that was an obvious call).

Kurds keep peshmerga under Kurdish command, they are officially part of the new Iraqi army. Kurds get to immigrate into parts of Kirkuk, not officially under Kurdish control however. Talabani as president, Allawi takes VP both posts are largely ceremonial. Ghazi Yawer gets speaker, which is not wholly ceremonial as one of many gestures to the Sunnis.

..oh and the new constitution guarantees the same basic rights and under TLA (which are comparable to the US).

My only worry is the effect of Sharia on marriage law and the strength of the judiciary.

Where have all the liberals gone?

2005-03-11T22:54:00.001-06:00

Before I nod off I have to introduce this one into the mix.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, a man who seems to me to have a talent for poignant and witty commentary, let fly a killer in a recent speech on the Middle East.

Faced with an American government of the Right promoting a vision of how to change the world for the better, many on the Left have become the staunchest advocates of the status quo.
Link

I for one couldn't agree more. I have always considered myself a liberal. I've never been one to tow the party line (I didn't pick "rogue ronin" as the URL name of this blog by accident) but the essence of liberalism...

Government as a primary tool for the improvement of the human condition.
The value of cooperation and service.

Has always been dear to me. Which is why I'm so disheartened by some of the things I've been hearing about the most progressive foreign policies I've ever heard from the US government. (at least rhetorically)

I fully respect principled opposition to the Iraq War. I think it is abundantly clear now that thousands of Americans and Iraqis have died under false justifications. I somewhat respect opposition to the concept of armed conflict period. I know quite a few pacifist and I've always found them to be reasonable caring people.

I do not at all respect opposition to the concept of promoting democracy and human rights throughout the Middle East and around the world.

One would think some of the irrational justifications behind such opposition would have died with the Third Reich.

"Arab/Muslim culture is incompatible with democracy."

"Given the chance to vote, they will elect extremists, they are a bloodthirsty people"

In the words of Jack Straw.

We're sometimes told that democracy is a Western value; and that promoting it reflects a Western agenda which we are seeking to impose on others.
I utterly reject that.

It is human nature to want more of a say in what goes on in one's life. Human rights are universal and need to be universally protected.

Perhaps there are disagreements on what these rights are, but institutions need to be present so that these disagreements can be settled peacefully and rationally.

These are no new ideas for liberals, as I understand it this is what liberals all around the world have been fighting for all these many years.

Why now then do some of us sit, comfortable in our living rooms, away from the torture chambers and secret police, decrying the promotion of our own values?!
I don't really like George W. Bush, I didn't vote for him and I think his administration could not by any stretch of the imagination be called what America truly needs.

..but if he will truly fight for the extension of freedom then you'd better believe I'll back him up.

Partisans need to examine why they joined the party. Forget the group, respect the goal.

Cries of "imperialism" and "arrogance" shouldn't stop liberals from spreading some of the values we experience in the Western world from uplifting other regions.

If believing that every human being should be free at birth is wrong. If believing that it is not only my right, but my duty to work to make that happen is wrong.

I never want to be right.

African Poverty

2005-03-11T18:16:00.000-06:00

I was always a fan of thinking big.

..and when I say big I mean huge. Some people are intimidated and frustrated by large problems, they complain that the never seem to get solved.

This degenerates into the oh-so-annoying defeatist attitude that they will never be solved. Past performance as ultimate indicator of future results and all that jazz.

To this I say ":P"

What am I talking about now?

Why, the Millennium Plan of course!

The main message is that extreme poverty on our planet, which threatens us by causing instability, disease, causes millions of people to suffer and die unnecessarily, can be brought to a close by our generation. And the Millennium development goals, which are goals to cut by half that extreme poverty by the year 2015, are achievable. But we're not on course to achieve these goals right now. We can get on course through modest steps on our part, coupled with a partnership with the poorest places in the world.
Before I do that, I should say the biggest gap in our country is the gap in perception, because Americans are generous. You see how they responded to the tsunami. But they think we do twenty to thirty times more in development aid than we actually do. So right now, the rich world on average gives about 25 cents out of every $100 of rich world income to help the poor countries. In the United States, it's just 15 cents out of every $100 of our income. What we calculate to be needed is on the order of about 50 cents per every $100 of income

.

A point-blank end to extreme poverty, now that's a big idea. One that most people in principle could get behind. The question is: Will nations agree to give up the cash to help others in return for enormous long-term gains?

Defeatism, as usual, is progress' greatest foe. It is common knowledge (and we know what I think of that) that Africa can never be brought out of poverty with increased assistance.

Aww, quit being a party pooper and read the report. Love to hear what you think, I'll follow up on this topic soon.
Millennium Plan Website

New UN Ambassador

2005-03-07T15:44:00.000-06:00

The Bush administration has nominated one John Bolton as the new US ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton, noted earlier for terse criticism of North Korea (aren't we all) has also apparently been none too kind to the UN.
His apparent words:

The (U.N.) Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference

Now whether true or not this may not be the best choice to represent the US to the organization. I always thought that Bush made some mighty questionable appointments, here's another.

Bush may have some good theory on foreign policy but the man can't execute his way out of a wet paper bag.

Back in the Saddle

2005-03-06T18:54:00.000-06:00

...well I'm back at school after a pretty unproductive Spring Break (just how I like 'em).

That's means a high-speed connection and more reason to post. Right now I've got oil on the brain.

I like to think outside the box and that means I have to cast a critical eye on claims that the Iraq war was for oil.

What? You say. But isn't Iraq swimming in oil, doesn't everything we do in the middle east have to do with oil?

Kill the common sense, which I always say is what everyone thinks they know and listen to the facts.

If the war in Iraq was for oil, it would have to strengthen the US position in regards to Iraqi oil. That is to say, US firms must be in a position to make much more money or US control must be exerted on the oil sales over the long term. Otherwise, why go to war?

... and that's were the theory falls for now. The US doesn't control Iraqi oil, it is run by the Iraqi oil ministry through it's state-run companies.

..and in case someone starts which the "puppet government" theory, see last post. Unless you think Ayatollah Sistani and the Iraqi Dawa party or the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq are US puppets you've got another thing coming.

The Iraqi government in in turn, a member of OPEC. You know, the guys we are supposed to be reducing our dependence on.

The debate is in progress and I encourage you to join us at AD but as of right now, "Blood for Oil" isn't looking so good.

Purpose

2005-02-18T21:52:00.000-06:00

..so, what are ya' in for?

I was sitting around the dorm room, downing a 2-Liter of Pepsi, fretting about a tough project and thinking about the meaning of life.

Folks, this is an accurate description of the majority of the time I don't spend sitting around in class or helping people out with classwork.

You'd think I'd get somewhere, but all I've got is a high minded mish-mash which I am staunchly adamant about.

To wit:

Proposition: The purpose of life is to serve the best interests of mankind according to the dictates of one's own core value system.

Service is the key in my book. A life not in the service of other human beings (as well as one's self) seems to me the epitome of nihility (had to look that gem up!)

Now once I recognized that this was my perspective I had to carry it to its logical conclusions.

The myriad entertainers, the athletes, the multi-billionaires were all so many leaves in the wind. At least as defined by the aforementioned labels.

To be a Bill Gates or Michael Jordan was a simply a colossal waste of time. If one only considers, the traits (wealth and athletic ability) that made them famous.

Sound sappy? It gets worse.

Next I juxtapose it with other thoughts on purpose. A friend of mine seems to have his meter set on wealth and especially legacy.

He places value on being remembered.

Being remembered fondly, except for services rendered, has no value. The forgotten school teacher goes to her a grave a more fulfilled person than the mourned pop singer.

Understand that when I say that, I don't just mean on the inside. Or that a servant on his death bed is somehow more comforted than a person who did not fulfill their purpose.

Corollary: Fulfilled purpose is an absolute, not to be confused with satisfaction which is relative.

The janitor who wails with despair at life's end over dashed dreams and wasted years, may well have been more purposeful than a millionaire who nods of to bed for the last time with a smile on his face.

One last morsel...

Postulate: Fulfilled purpose is of greater value than satisfaction and is to be sought whenever the two are in conflict.

The meaning of life will not change (I refuse to edit it :P), it is our part therefore to adjust our attitudes to find happiness in it.

Happiness... sounds like the stuff of another post.

Signing off from la-la-land...

John Negroponte: Jack of All Trades

2005-02-17T10:01:00.000-06:00

..What's up with this? I not sure whether it's a bad choice per se, but does the Bush Administration know of any other qualified people? Oh, you don't know what I talking about, do you?

From the BBC:
President George W Bush has nominated John Negroponte as
the first US director of national intelligence. [...]Mr Negroponte became US
ambassador to Iraq in July, after having been his country's envoy to the United
Nations. There has reportedly been little discussion of who will replace him in
Baghdad.
Link

From UN ambassador to Iraq ambassador to intelligence chief. Every time the White House has a difficult position to fill, it seems Negroponte is the guy.

How being an ambassador makes him the best intelligence chief is a bit iffy though.

I don't like the looks of this one at all...

Iraqi Prime Minister

2005-02-16T10:14:00.000-06:00

Gotta a heads-up on the guy looking to run Iraq for the next few months.

Dr. Ibrahim Jafaari, leader of the Iraqi Dawa party. Dawa is islamist but this guy doesn't look to be an extremist. According to the NY Times he favors the current legal balance of religion and law in Iraq. It cites Islam of one of many sources of law, which means Sharia is not likely to be legally enshrined.

Good news for those interested in freedom and especially women's rights.

Iraq's New Start...

2005-02-14T14:26:00.000-06:00

... and here it is!

One of the issues I'm watching more closely is the continually developing situation in Iraq. Of particular note recently have been the recent elections in the country.

Link to Election Results (Wikipedia): Iraqi Legislative Election, 2005

To be brief the "United Iraqi Alliance" a mainly Shiite coalition of parties with the quiet backing (he never claimed to support them himself, there were merely whispers from his spokesmen) has claimed a plurality with 140 of the 275 seats in the national assembly.

Other major players include the "Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan" (made up of the two main Kurdish parties) with 75 seats and the "Iraqi List" headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi with 40.

This makes for a divided government albeit between relatively friendly factions, possibly the best that could be hoped for.

It's a real downer for the "puppet government" crowd who were sure the evil neo-cons were going to install Allawi (you know, just like how they were going to install Chalabi). As well as for the "election of the extremists" crowd because the group backed by Moqtada Al-Sadr got two seats, both of his representatives are free to give the other a pat on the back... (Edited to Add: That number might be upgraded to three, which would be enough for a group hug)

..but for 25 million Iraqis it ain't so bad.

The Sunni Arabs who "chose" (or had the insurgents choose) to boycott are almost a non-issue, except in the consideration of the Shia and Kurds in power (which fortunately looks to be pretty friendly).

It also mean that fundamentalist Shia (the Kurds could stall everything if offended) have to go easy on the role of Islam in government which may well mean more freedoms for women and religious minorities.

How that could not be good is beyond me. Democracy is well on it's way to becoming a fact of life in Iraq.

Free(Penguin) Love

2005-02-14T11:41:00.000-06:00

First of all, this post is not meant to be anti-gay in any way shape or form. I think the homophobia in our society has reached distressing levels and I certainly don't want to add to it.

This post is dedicated to the pursuit of comedy.

That being said, bring on the penguins.

Confused? What do penguins have to do with homophobia?

Apparently everything...

From the BBC:

"Gay rights activists have protested at a north German zoo's plans to test the sexual orientation of six male penguins which have displayed homosexual traits."[...]

"The zoo says it just wants to encourage the rare Humboldt penguins to breed.[...]
"Nobody here wants to forcibly separate homosexual couples," she said."
Gay outrage over penguin sex test

Which is good to know...

I could go into a whole diatribe about how this illustrates the capacity of human beings to get upset over the smallest things. You know, the tendency for people to separate into antagonistic factions at the slightest pressure.

..but I think we all know that isn't why I posted this.

So if you're like me, you'll have a good laugh and wait for the more intellectually stimulating content (I assure you it's coming)

Or, if you want me to stick with the penguin thing, tag on a comment and I'll consider it

I aim to please.

Peace and Penguin Love Folks!

A New Day...

2005-02-12T14:56:00.000-06:00

For all of you who don't believe peer pressure works... :p

Observe that is has gotten me to do something that I have not tried in years. That is to say keep any form of journal.

Oh, I have been "encouraged" to in the past by school assignments, trips to camp and the like, but it seemed to me a most cruel form of torture to have me write about my own day.

I always preferred the luck of the psychological draw as the driving force behind my memories. If I forgot then, hey, it must not have been that important.

So when I first submitted the proposal to start a blog to the central processing office that sits between my ears, I balked at the idea.

"Sounds suspiciously like work," I say to myself.

"It's not work, there's no commitment to posting." I respond.

"If you want to leave whatever readers you have (pauses to listen to the crickets out back) out to dry no one can stop you."

The prospect of such a practical joke appealed to me, so after months of consideration (zzzz) I started "The Hot Seat".

Here in our "Siege Perilous" (this was the, already taken, first choice for a name) I intend to grill political and popular issues of note.

You see I have a shameful interest in the sordid game we in the English speaking world like to call "politics," in an effort to have some way of referring to it in polite company.

I thought to satisfy my regrettable urgings at the best darn site for discussion politics and policy anywhere...

*Vital Information*
America's Debate: A know-it-all's Heaven on Earth.

Visit, now... you can read my yammering later.

..Ahem, but that only aggravated my condition. I sure you're thinking that further expression on this site would do the same. Understand that I have decided to embrace the madness.

"Embrace the Madness" is quite possibly the best description of the plans I have for this blog you can get in three words. Remember it, the test is tomorrow.

Welcome.