Conservatism has lost her way, is adrift, has found no authentic home. The need for conservatism is real. People are stressed. Why is the government everywhere? People correctly perceive that their lifestyle is in danger, that they individually have too little power to sustain it. People are whelmed: Too much data. Can't we just slow down for a minute? Homer assures me the Gods may have a sympathetic heart, a sense of humor and divine rage. For which shall I pray?
Nostalgia. Preservation. Culture. Community. Privacy. Freedom. Self interest. These are acceptable ideas. But Conservatism hasn't been well represented at the lectern or at the pulpit. For the past forty years, her supposed servants have fought to politicize conservatism in one failed attempt after another, and each follows the prior, like so much dishwater, down the drain. The promulgation of windmills like death tax - a rendition that helps no one. Most recently holding the country and economy hostage on the debt ceiling. Politicians , of all classes of people, telling others they love their country more. It is perfectly lousy as representation goes. It is self interest expressed at a level not frequently long tolerated, even in highly tolerant societies.. Those who claim to represent conservatism are more opportunistic than altruistic and more ideological than theoretical. They do not practice a recognizable variant. And, they are a lie. She, the truth.
Liberalism is just as lost. The band of individuals faced down by giants, only in union can they prevail. The face of the giant changes. The need for cooperation is immutable. Great foils are a fixture of history. Individuals organize and governments grow exponentially in response. We don't trust any other institution to protect us more than the government. That may not always be what we tell polling firms, but all other evidence confirms it.
Who would besmirch his reputation to claim this design? Could you even count the number of government programs? Enough with the government programs already. How is that model different from a peasant asking an advance wage from the lord? How is that better? More predictable? Thank a Prussian. Bureaucracy as the chief instrument of social welfare? Is that really how liberalism advances its agenda in the twenty-first century? This is not liberalism.
If I could get a conservative liberal, I think I'd have exactly what I want.
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Saturday, June 27, 2009
A Chorus Emerges from the Primordial Soup
Since the time that I first encountered the concept of evolution, I have managed the simple image of some reptilian slug oozing its way from of the primordial soup, out onto the sludge that must have been the strand, exposing itself to all varieties of toxi-genated "air", and dragging with it in that instant the genetic markers for all future mammalian life.
My conceptualization, virtually static for three decades now, was fertilized last night by my nine year old son. We walked the dogs at about 9 PM, and discussed the random things that fathers discuss with their nine year old sons. He was interested in the evolutionary branch that gave rise to wolves and dogs, and wondered if dogs evolved from the wolves. I offered that maybe they both evolved from the same third thing. He headed for the swamp.
He refers to the place from which that first creature emerged as "the swamp". We discussed that point at which that first creature shoved its face out of the wet. This creature has served for my thinking as the pivot point, the sole link between the future air breathers and their plant-like forebears, a singleton.
Michael cleanly shattered my simplistic concept by asking: "How do we know that more than one thing didn't crawl out, and evolve into the many different types of animals now on earth?"
If I have encountered a more parsimonious addition to my understanding of evolution, I cannot remember it now.
Thank you, my son.
My conceptualization, virtually static for three decades now, was fertilized last night by my nine year old son. We walked the dogs at about 9 PM, and discussed the random things that fathers discuss with their nine year old sons. He was interested in the evolutionary branch that gave rise to wolves and dogs, and wondered if dogs evolved from the wolves. I offered that maybe they both evolved from the same third thing. He headed for the swamp.
He refers to the place from which that first creature emerged as "the swamp". We discussed that point at which that first creature shoved its face out of the wet. This creature has served for my thinking as the pivot point, the sole link between the future air breathers and their plant-like forebears, a singleton.
Michael cleanly shattered my simplistic concept by asking: "How do we know that more than one thing didn't crawl out, and evolve into the many different types of animals now on earth?"
If I have encountered a more parsimonious addition to my understanding of evolution, I cannot remember it now.
Thank you, my son.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
AIG and Third Rock?
John Lithgow is a great actor. Edward M. Liddy (not to be confused with G. Gordon) is also pretty good.
Lithgow has had a lot of great roles. Liddy is also pretty funny. Both names begin with "Li". I think they even sort of look similar.
I have to believe that Liddy is basically trying to emulate Lithgow's hilarity with this bonus thing. It certainly seems like something from Third Rock. That is really the only reasonable explanation.
Source for photos:
Lithgow: Wikipedia
Liddy: NYT
Lithgow has had a lot of great roles. Liddy is also pretty funny. Both names begin with "Li". I think they even sort of look similar.
I have to believe that Liddy is basically trying to emulate Lithgow's hilarity with this bonus thing. It certainly seems like something from Third Rock. That is really the only reasonable explanation.
Source for photos:
Lithgow: Wikipedia
Liddy: NYT
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Crimes of Folsom Lake Toyota
It is hard to fathom how stupid Folsom Lake Toyota must think people are. People aren't really that stupid, are they?
I have heard of creative sales approaches. These guys are so ridiculous that unethical just barely describes it. We made an offer on a Prius. The Sales Rep told us the manager accepted our offer.
The rest of the day - 2 hours of my life that I will never get back - went something like this.
I have heard of creative sales approaches. These guys are so ridiculous that unethical just barely describes it. We made an offer on a Prius. The Sales Rep told us the manager accepted our offer.
The rest of the day - 2 hours of my life that I will never get back - went something like this.
Us: we will pay $24.5 for car X with package Y
Folsom
Folsom
Us: Sign forms. Drink Coffee. Watch Basketball. 45 minutes pass.
Folsom
Folsom
Us: These are not the real numbers. We want to see the real numbers. No need to negotiate here. We've got an agreement. By the way, no one uses a 30% down payment. That is just silly.
Folsom
Folsom
Folsom
Us: Uh, we agreed to $24.5, not thirty.
Folsom
Folsom
Folsom
Us: Uh? This still says $30. That's not what we agreed to. How did you calculate this figure anyway?
Folsom
Folsom
Folsom
Us: This is not the price we negotiated. Fix this. Now!
Folsom
Us: You can help us by using the price we agreed upon, calculating taxes on that amount, and getting us out of here inside of the two hour window we have available to us.
Folsom
Folsom
Us: Thank you, and good-bye.
Folsom
Us: Thank you, and good-bye.
Us: (Wife and son walk out the door. I pause to tell the Sale Rep thanks, and that we are leaving.)
Folsom
Me: Why did you fail to honor our agreement?
Folsom
Me: Good luck with that. (I really said that, as I spun on my heel for the door.)
Us: (Drive away in our old car -- 2 hours after we arrived.)
Us: Are people so stupid that they allow these unethical turds to pull such crap.
Is it even remotely legal to over-charge on sales tax and add the overage back into the price? Is it ethical to agree to a price, add thousands onto that price, and then just wear the customer down with the back-and-forth-with-the- manager game? Is this the fashion for all Toyota dealerships everywhere? I experienced this practice at two dodge Dodge dealerships, and two Nissan dealerships. Maybe it is ALL car dealerships. That would be so sad!
Somebody somewhere help me to believe that we have not all fallen to this level.
Update: I am told that a rebate is in fact taxable in California. This does not account for the delta in pricing this morning.
Postscript. We purchased a Prius this evening from Maita Toyota in Sacramento for less than we had offered in Folsom ($4k off sticker). Call Dave Lundgaard there (dlundgaard@maitats.dealerspace.com). Dave is the internet / fleet sales guy at Maita Toyota, and he is great.
We returned home from the dealership in Sacramento this evening to find a voice-mail message from Folsom Lake Toyota. "Mike the sales rep told me what happened to you. I'm very sorry. I think we can make it right." No thanks! (See PSS here.)
Friday, March 21, 2008
Questions of Loyalty
Is loyalty over-rated? George W. Bush has certainly abused the concept.
Loyalty is but a carpenter's hammer for Machiavelli, most politicians, and many business associates. It is required for framing a house, but dispensable once you move in.
What about the lack of loyalty? If loyalty itself is problematic, then betraying loyalty should have no meaning beyond the span of short-term memory, no tangible or intangible benefit in public life, no impact on the collective conscience, and no inherent individual moral or spiritual value - positive or negative.
Maybe it is a form of poison. Perhaps loyalty is only reverse revenge.
Something inside me is greatly disturbed by this interpretation. It would not please me to wake up and determine my allegiances anew each day. Success built on such a fault-line ridden foundation would not be success at all.
Maybe I should grow up.
Maybe
I
do not
want to.
Loyalty is but a carpenter's hammer for Machiavelli, most politicians, and many business associates. It is required for framing a house, but dispensable once you move in.
What about the lack of loyalty? If loyalty itself is problematic, then betraying loyalty should have no meaning beyond the span of short-term memory, no tangible or intangible benefit in public life, no impact on the collective conscience, and no inherent individual moral or spiritual value - positive or negative.
Maybe it is a form of poison. Perhaps loyalty is only reverse revenge.
Something inside me is greatly disturbed by this interpretation. It would not please me to wake up and determine my allegiances anew each day. Success built on such a fault-line ridden foundation would not be success at all.
Maybe I should grow up.
Maybe
I
do not
want to.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Joey stepped up, ...
...and he raised his hand and said, "We're not those kind of men
It's peace and quiet that we need to go back to work again".
Bob Dylan, Joey
I seem to have really angered some "Obama supporter" friends of mine because I argue in favor of Hillary. One has halted correspondence. Apparently the alienation of friends is becoming the rule in this contest.
According to exit polling in the Texas primary, 91 percent of Clinton supporters said they would be dissatisfied with Obama as the nominee; 87 percent of Obama fans said they would be dissatisfied with Clinton. Nationally, a quarter of those who back Clinton say they'd vote for John McCain if Obama won the nomination (while just 10 percent of Obama supporters would do the same if he lost).
Newsweek
I am shamed.
What is the real underlying cause of this fracture between two camps with policy differences so minor that they require a thorough reading of footnotes, appendixes and columnists even to understand them. The lamest explanations begin with "everybody knows...", but that phrase prefaces every diagnosis I encounter regarding the apparent antipathy between the Clinton and Obama camps.
Here is my message to Obama supporters: Get over yourselves.
Here is my message to Clinton supporters: Get over yourselves.
Here is my message to Democrats: One of the candidates will win. Maybe yours. Maybe not. One of the candidates will get second place and lose. Maybe yours. Maybe not. We will probably know before the convention. Maybe not.
Either way -- if your candidate wins or if yours does not win -- Democrats will be represented by a solid and fully vetted candidate in the general election. The Democratic candidate will win the election in November if average Democrats do not act like children, spiteful jilted lovers, or third world petty dictators.
Or like OReilly and Olberman.
This competition is not over. Neither candidate has won. Neither has lost. When that moment comes, electoral success will depend on average Democrats to follow the example of Joey, when he stepped up,
and he raised his hand and said, "We're not those kind of men
It's peace and quiet that we need to go back to work again".
What if, eight years later...
We were facing a different choice?
What if, eight years ago, Karl Rove and Co. had used their considerable talent to steer the Republicans toward a candidate who was engaged, competent, clear thinking, hard working and, to be concise, George W. Bush's complete opposite?
What if Karl and the Republicans had fostered an era wherein the creative names they assigned to their legislative efforts reflected the actual content?
What if Karl and the Republicans had selected a candidate capable of understanding that content, let alone discussing or actually contributing to it?
What if Karl and the Republicans had been able to decouple their policy goals from the trademark slash and burn incompetence of the Bush-II Administration.
Is there an alternate universe wherein the Iraq war was competently executed, even more so the choice whether to enter it at all? Is there an alternate universe wherein Republicans effectively managed the economy for families of all socio-economic strata? Is there an alternate universe wherein all domestic and foreign policy was basically competently managed with only the occasional blunder, instead of blunderously managed with only the rarest example of competence - usually expressed as a resignation?
There is an enormous contradiction in the fact that the ueber competent Karl Rove and Co. ended up with such an incompetent standard bearer to lead the implementation of their ideas. Is there an alternate universe wherein the potential value of the Republican platform is successfully transformed into policy? I do not agree with many of their ideas, but an honest and competently orchestrated implementation would have been a fairer test.
Is overcoming this history the primary challenge for McCain? Or is its continuation his promise?
In fact, what does a successful implementation of the modern Republican ideal look like? Bush-II? Bush-I? Reagan? Nixon?
On second thought,
never mind.
What if, eight years ago, Karl Rove and Co. had used their considerable talent to steer the Republicans toward a candidate who was engaged, competent, clear thinking, hard working and, to be concise, George W. Bush's complete opposite?
What if Karl and the Republicans had fostered an era wherein the creative names they assigned to their legislative efforts reflected the actual content?
What if Karl and the Republicans had selected a candidate capable of understanding that content, let alone discussing or actually contributing to it?
What if Karl and the Republicans had been able to decouple their policy goals from the trademark slash and burn incompetence of the Bush-II Administration.
Is there an alternate universe wherein the Iraq war was competently executed, even more so the choice whether to enter it at all? Is there an alternate universe wherein Republicans effectively managed the economy for families of all socio-economic strata? Is there an alternate universe wherein all domestic and foreign policy was basically competently managed with only the occasional blunder, instead of blunderously managed with only the rarest example of competence - usually expressed as a resignation?
There is an enormous contradiction in the fact that the ueber competent Karl Rove and Co. ended up with such an incompetent standard bearer to lead the implementation of their ideas. Is there an alternate universe wherein the potential value of the Republican platform is successfully transformed into policy? I do not agree with many of their ideas, but an honest and competently orchestrated implementation would have been a fairer test.
Is overcoming this history the primary challenge for McCain? Or is its continuation his promise?
In fact, what does a successful implementation of the modern Republican ideal look like? Bush-II? Bush-I? Reagan? Nixon?
On second thought,
never mind.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
My so-called friends...
have fallen under a spell.
They look me squarely in the eye and they say, "All is well."
Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high
When men will beg God to kill them and they won't be able to die?
Bob Dylan, Precious Angel
A few weeks ago I wrote that it would be an error for Democrats to expect to benefit from any pre-convention split among the Republicans.
Since then, the so-called "mainstream media" and the conservative talking heads have provided an exciting confirmation (see this - thanks KC; and my earlier musings here).
Today, Karl Rove re-initiated himself into the discussion with an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. He affirms that the political contest to be waged by Republicans will become very unpleasant, very soon. He is also trying to deflect some the attention to stories on McCain's relationships with lobbyists. There are layers, and there are layers.
I am told in discussions with really smart friends, the really well-informed ones, that John Cougar Mellencamp was right. "Nothing matters and what if it did."
"...I hardly think Karl Rove is a source I want to devote much time toward."
"...it's just more of Karl Rove's diarrhea of the mouth..."
Perhaps I err.
Maybe this Obama-mania and the surrounding aura will be enough. Maybe his rhetorical flourish, intellectual armor and political instinct are so fantastic that they will protect him against his personal and political short-comings throughout the campaign.
Maybe this really is the year of the Democrats. Maybe Bush and his criminal regime have dragged down the Republicans to such an underwhelming state of disrepute that, as a national political force, they have already exhausted any realistic opportunity to win the Presidential contest in November.
And maybe, just maybe, none of us has never squandered an opportunity that was ours to squander.
Hope is not a strategy.
History shows that an opposing candidate underestimates the Rush Limbaughs, the Karl Roves and their oozing, beguiling ilk at his own great peril. These guys act as a forward area scout for an army of 300 million camped just beyond the hill.
So maybe,
just maybe,
we
should
prepare
for
what is
to come.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Huckabee is right...
about one important issue.
The American People have embraced civility in this election to a greater extent than any election since before Reagan.
Every state primary and caucus has reacted negatively to negative campaigning. Candidates are not allowed to be seen trying to make another candidate look bad as a person.
On both sides, Republicans and Democrats.
Edwards picked on Hillary, saying he and Obama were the guys. He was wrong.
Romney hammered on McCain. That turned out badly for him.
There is a competition between both Clinton and Obama, and Huckabee and McCain, to be seen as the nicest guy, resulting in a conversation among gentle-persons, a very aristocratic affair.
I wonder whether this trait will or can be extended into the general election.
Would
that
be
a great
change,
or
what?
The American People have embraced civility in this election to a greater extent than any election since before Reagan.
Every state primary and caucus has reacted negatively to negative campaigning. Candidates are not allowed to be seen trying to make another candidate look bad as a person.
On both sides, Republicans and Democrats.
Edwards picked on Hillary, saying he and Obama were the guys. He was wrong.
Romney hammered on McCain. That turned out badly for him.
There is a competition between both Clinton and Obama, and Huckabee and McCain, to be seen as the nicest guy, resulting in a conversation among gentle-persons, a very aristocratic affair.
I wonder whether this trait will or can be extended into the general election.
Would
that
be
a great
change,
or
what?
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The issue of change...
may be a bit of red herring if you have Ted Kennedy stumping for you. One of the great fossils of the Democratic party is for change?
There is a further contradiction in a "change candidate" supported by half of Washington.
There may be an even bigger contradiction in a "change candidate" surrounded by guys like Tom Dashle and others who were run out of Washington as the old guard a few years ago.
I like Obama. I will happily support him in the election. I also like Kennedy and Dashle. I really like them a lot.
I
do not
like
hypocrisy.
There is a further contradiction in a "change candidate" supported by half of Washington.
There may be an even bigger contradiction in a "change candidate" surrounded by guys like Tom Dashle and others who were run out of Washington as the old guard a few years ago.
I like Obama. I will happily support him in the election. I also like Kennedy and Dashle. I really like them a lot.
I
do not
like
hypocrisy.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Should I Secede
... from the internet? I am certain that I will miss nothing, and I will be missed even less.
I knew an old German professor of Philosophy who refused to have an email account. His imagery of having to respond to alarm bells and whistles going off when he was trying to complete serious research is appropriate. The internet creates a huge amount of psychological noise dictating where we need to be, how to order videos and pizza, and displacing the physical act of Christmas shopping with its point-and-click counterpart.
I expect any day to find an advertisement for a web-based enema service -- to open up blocked electronic passage ways. (Do not search. I did and the results are not pretty.)
There are broken links. Links to smut, advertisements and phishing holes always work. Broken links are a phenomenon strictly limited to the tiny fraction of useful or interesting content on the Web. Broken links are always and only to something I actually need or want.
I am really tired of the spam. I used to believe that spam only came in email. I've come to understand that the most of the internet is spam. Email only alerts me to its exact location.
Most of the internet is comprised of disorganized web sites devoid of any useful content at all - four percent lean bits wrapped in an ethereal sausage casing, 96 percent ground up organ parts, ears, snouts and feet.
The robot brain so feared by human ethicists of the 1950s and '70s is already their primary mode of cognition. Do they see the worst-fear-realized state of an electronic community mind that lives independently of its contributors and consumers? It is here.
I do not mean to disparage the entertainment value of the internet. We are definitely entertained. Yet we are now privately entertained by content that we do not and cannot share with our mothers.
I love the internet. They can have my Web when the pry my cold dead fingers from my keyboard.
My fear is that we might all secede from the internet, but no one would notice.
Raise
your
laptop lid
if
you
are
NOT
here.
I knew an old German professor of Philosophy who refused to have an email account. His imagery of having to respond to alarm bells and whistles going off when he was trying to complete serious research is appropriate. The internet creates a huge amount of psychological noise dictating where we need to be, how to order videos and pizza, and displacing the physical act of Christmas shopping with its point-and-click counterpart.
I expect any day to find an advertisement for a web-based enema service -- to open up blocked electronic passage ways. (Do not search. I did and the results are not pretty.)
There are broken links. Links to smut, advertisements and phishing holes always work. Broken links are a phenomenon strictly limited to the tiny fraction of useful or interesting content on the Web. Broken links are always and only to something I actually need or want.
I am really tired of the spam. I used to believe that spam only came in email. I've come to understand that the most of the internet is spam. Email only alerts me to its exact location.
Most of the internet is comprised of disorganized web sites devoid of any useful content at all - four percent lean bits wrapped in an ethereal sausage casing, 96 percent ground up organ parts, ears, snouts and feet.
The robot brain so feared by human ethicists of the 1950s and '70s is already their primary mode of cognition. Do they see the worst-fear-realized state of an electronic community mind that lives independently of its contributors and consumers? It is here.
I do not mean to disparage the entertainment value of the internet. We are definitely entertained. Yet we are now privately entertained by content that we do not and cannot share with our mothers.
I love the internet. They can have my Web when the pry my cold dead fingers from my keyboard.
My fear is that we might all secede from the internet, but no one would notice.
Raise
your
laptop lid
if
you
are
NOT
here.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Steriods are illegal...
because the little old ladies of the Prohibition Era raised sons who now control TAC, the IOC, the USOC, as well as the NBA, NFL and MLB and other sports regulatory bodies.
No one can dispute how fast Ben Johnson ran. Nor Marion Jones. You cannot take a record back. That is absurd.
People should not take steriods. There is an argument to be made, however, that the label "performance enhancing drugs" is no more sensible than "death tax."
Anabolic steriods are training enhancing drugs. They allow athletes to train harder, and repair faster. Their use does not necessarily imply or result in enhanced peak performance.
Steriods constitute a health risk. We need some perspective.
We have a president who denies global warming. Insurance companies refuse to pay to help dying clients. North Carolina considers smoking a protected civil right[1,2]. Would the beef from Krogers pass a drug test for steriods?
I advise you to not use them.
I also advise us not to criminalize them.
Any substance will be much simpler to track if it is legal. (I would apply the same logic to other classes of currently illegal drugs, but that is a topic for another time.)
We should have steroid classes of events. We have age groups. We stratify winners based on gender. We have races for various special groups. Why not a "master men doper" 10k at the Crystal Palace?
It would be a sin to cheat, and enter into the non-doping class when you dope. We should continue to test. There would be little incentive to cheat like that if not for the little old ladies' sons who now run sports.
I need a champion for this cause.
I
wonder
what
Jack Kevorkian
is doing
these days?
No one can dispute how fast Ben Johnson ran. Nor Marion Jones. You cannot take a record back. That is absurd.
People should not take steriods. There is an argument to be made, however, that the label "performance enhancing drugs" is no more sensible than "death tax."
Anabolic steriods are training enhancing drugs. They allow athletes to train harder, and repair faster. Their use does not necessarily imply or result in enhanced peak performance.
Steriods constitute a health risk. We need some perspective.
We have a president who denies global warming. Insurance companies refuse to pay to help dying clients. North Carolina considers smoking a protected civil right[1,2]. Would the beef from Krogers pass a drug test for steriods?
I advise you to not use them.
I also advise us not to criminalize them.
Any substance will be much simpler to track if it is legal. (I would apply the same logic to other classes of currently illegal drugs, but that is a topic for another time.)
We should have steroid classes of events. We have age groups. We stratify winners based on gender. We have races for various special groups. Why not a "master men doper" 10k at the Crystal Palace?
It would be a sin to cheat, and enter into the non-doping class when you dope. We should continue to test. There would be little incentive to cheat like that if not for the little old ladies' sons who now run sports.
I need a champion for this cause.
I
wonder
what
Jack Kevorkian
is doing
these days?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
An epidemic of public intolerance...
seems to have overtaken the erstwhile tolerant.
A new publicly accepted definition of tolerance encapsulates intolerance. It requires that we publicly expel those who exhibit certain behaviors we characterize as intolerant. It perpetuates the myth that we are are still tolerant when we do not tolerate the intolerant. This dissembling is pure and simple Freudian projection. We are not intolerant; they are.
We are not tolerant. We have embraced a tolerance diet. We should call it tolerance light.
The number of celebrities lately in trouble for racist, sexist, homophobic or other intolerant remarks keeps growing. There is Mel and his dad, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, Trent Lott, Dusty Baker, Andrew Young, Don Imus, The Governator, a substantial number of football / baseball / basketball players, Police Constable Peter O’Kane, the entire Fox News Staff, and James Watson. Plus many more.
I am uncertain exactly how to characterize Larry Craig's foot flapping flip flopping affair. Is it neo-tolerance? What about the reaction of his reactionary colleages? Hypo-tolerance?
Perhaps Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) should not have been fired from Grey's Anatomy because he uttered homophobic idiocy, or even for actually being an homophobic idiot. He should be fired because, frankly, he is a terrible actor. Maybe he should be allowed to be a homophobic idiot -- one who obviously has some "latent issues."
Stick and stones, and words: We no longer seem to sanction this distinction.
I do not condone or countenance racists and bigots, their language or their behavior. But tolerance requires, by its definition, the acceptance of behaviors and attitudes with which I disagree, so long as they are not harmful to others. Words are often hateful but infrequently harmful.
Tolerance in an open democratic society cannot include a policy to ban hateful speech. We should not discriminate. Nor should we be reactionary.
Real tolerance will provide a more substantive moral example than our hypocritical version of tolerance light. Tolerance is a long term, classical liberal value. It is a good and necessary component for building a fair and just society. Yes, it is hard. But tolerance light is dangerous, and subversive of liberal democratic principles.
Tolerance light
has become
just
another form
of
social control.
A new publicly accepted definition of tolerance encapsulates intolerance. It requires that we publicly expel those who exhibit certain behaviors we characterize as intolerant. It perpetuates the myth that we are are still tolerant when we do not tolerate the intolerant. This dissembling is pure and simple Freudian projection. We are not intolerant; they are.
We are not tolerant. We have embraced a tolerance diet. We should call it tolerance light.
The number of celebrities lately in trouble for racist, sexist, homophobic or other intolerant remarks keeps growing. There is Mel and his dad, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, Trent Lott, Dusty Baker, Andrew Young, Don Imus, The Governator, a substantial number of football / baseball / basketball players, Police Constable Peter O’Kane, the entire Fox News Staff, and James Watson. Plus many more.
I am uncertain exactly how to characterize Larry Craig's foot flapping flip flopping affair. Is it neo-tolerance? What about the reaction of his reactionary colleages? Hypo-tolerance?
Perhaps Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) should not have been fired from Grey's Anatomy because he uttered homophobic idiocy, or even for actually being an homophobic idiot. He should be fired because, frankly, he is a terrible actor. Maybe he should be allowed to be a homophobic idiot -- one who obviously has some "latent issues."
Stick and stones, and words: We no longer seem to sanction this distinction.
I do not condone or countenance racists and bigots, their language or their behavior. But tolerance requires, by its definition, the acceptance of behaviors and attitudes with which I disagree, so long as they are not harmful to others. Words are often hateful but infrequently harmful.
Tolerance in an open democratic society cannot include a policy to ban hateful speech. We should not discriminate. Nor should we be reactionary.
Real tolerance will provide a more substantive moral example than our hypocritical version of tolerance light. Tolerance is a long term, classical liberal value. It is a good and necessary component for building a fair and just society. Yes, it is hard. But tolerance light is dangerous, and subversive of liberal democratic principles.
Tolerance light
has become
just
another form
of
social control.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Failure is a great teacher...
...if one lets her do her job.
I have trekked behind in Her footsteps for years.
The Goddess Quit is the angry nemesis of Failure. Quit aborts the unborn Will from Failure, and leaves her daughters Depression and Dismay to fester in the womb.
Quit is a low pressure system that teases the energy from Failure. I will side with Failure in every stormy battle against Quit.
I will ever choose Failure in Her n'er ending battle with Quit's vamp sibling Inertia.
I will battle Nothing with Failure.
"I will stand on the Ocean until I start sinking."
Failure breathe my final essence, I will not exchange a kiss with the seductress whore Quit.
I respect fair Failure and will battle beside Her. I do not pursue Her. She is but one of triplets.
I much prefer her most beautiful sister Success, of the three.
I have
slept
most often
with the
homely
and
good
sister
Adequacy.
I have trekked behind in Her footsteps for years.
The Goddess Quit is the angry nemesis of Failure. Quit aborts the unborn Will from Failure, and leaves her daughters Depression and Dismay to fester in the womb.
Quit is a low pressure system that teases the energy from Failure. I will side with Failure in every stormy battle against Quit.
I will ever choose Failure in Her n'er ending battle with Quit's vamp sibling Inertia.
I will battle Nothing with Failure.
"I will stand on the Ocean until I start sinking."
Failure breathe my final essence, I will not exchange a kiss with the seductress whore Quit.
I respect fair Failure and will battle beside Her. I do not pursue Her. She is but one of triplets.
I much prefer her most beautiful sister Success, of the three.
I have
slept
most often
with the
homely
and
good
sister
Adequacy.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
I started to write a novel...
about three years ago. I was selling voter registration systems and electronic voting machines. My company had developed a partnership with a firm in Texas. They had great products. Their voter registration system was vapor ware. It was, however, backed by a very solid vanilla HTML-based, wire-frame user interface, a legacy-system-port requirements package, and a fit-gap to complete the design. Their electronic voting machines, on the other hand, were the best engineered product on the market, and had the highest quality user interface. We had some limited success as partners. Their software and hardware products eventually made some money in their respective spaces.
I began work on my novel by developing an outline that included love scenes, major geek time, and a core of political intrigue. I wrote a great deal, off and on for over a year. I would write, and then real life would overtake my project. I would put it down for a few months, and then begin to write again.
Then a catastrophe struck.
My complete outline was published in the papers. It was carried by every major news organization in the country. It was shown in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, on CNN.com and MSNBC.com, discussed by Tim Russert and Chris Matthews. It was a nightmare that occupied my days.
I do not mean to suggest that anyone stole the outline I wrote, or plagiarized my written ideas.
All that I had conceived just came true.
I get my muse on now and again. I periodically visualize and vocalize the obvious before it occurs. Sometimes I even make wild predictions that are latterly proved true.
In this case, however, I was simply a guy with two passions - politics and information technology - who could see far enough into the past to understand how badly these two worlds would mix in the future.
I did not choose the topic accidentally.
I knew the level of integrity of several of the corporate characters in this space. The executive at Diebold finally spoke to the nation what all of us in this space had long known when he agreed to deliver Ohio to Bush. He was certainly not the only person thinking along those lines.
Information technology and politics well represent men and women in Tannen's book, "You just don't understand..." Information technology solves problems by applying rational solutions. Politics is pure passion; she wants nothing more than to be understood. She expects -- and accepts -- nothing more, as well.
I have seen politicians and political-bureaucrats put information technologists through a grotesque range of systemic contortions to support purely selfish political motives. Sometimes the technologists merely spend a long time, and waste a great deal of money, at failure. Frequently a team of technologists is scapegoated and fired. Periodically the offending politico is also canned.
It did not take a genius to predict that information technology would be skinned by politicians in the election space.
I left my notebook in the seat-back pocket on a Delta commuter jet in Dallas, Texas. I called Delta for months hoping to retrieve it. My version of the story was lost forever.
I saw no reason to revive the project when it ceased to be fiction. What could I really add to make it any more interesting, or more surreal, than it already was?
I saw an article in the news this week that indicated electronic voting was being suspended in The Netherlands.
Sociology has been defined as the documentation of the obvious. Perhaps fiction is but a race to stay in front of current events.
Information technology
"pwned"
by politics
is now history
waiting
to be written.
I began work on my novel by developing an outline that included love scenes, major geek time, and a core of political intrigue. I wrote a great deal, off and on for over a year. I would write, and then real life would overtake my project. I would put it down for a few months, and then begin to write again.
Then a catastrophe struck.
My complete outline was published in the papers. It was carried by every major news organization in the country. It was shown in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, on CNN.com and MSNBC.com, discussed by Tim Russert and Chris Matthews. It was a nightmare that occupied my days.
I do not mean to suggest that anyone stole the outline I wrote, or plagiarized my written ideas.
All that I had conceived just came true.
I get my muse on now and again. I periodically visualize and vocalize the obvious before it occurs. Sometimes I even make wild predictions that are latterly proved true.
In this case, however, I was simply a guy with two passions - politics and information technology - who could see far enough into the past to understand how badly these two worlds would mix in the future.
I did not choose the topic accidentally.
I knew the level of integrity of several of the corporate characters in this space. The executive at Diebold finally spoke to the nation what all of us in this space had long known when he agreed to deliver Ohio to Bush. He was certainly not the only person thinking along those lines.
Information technology and politics well represent men and women in Tannen's book, "You just don't understand..." Information technology solves problems by applying rational solutions. Politics is pure passion; she wants nothing more than to be understood. She expects -- and accepts -- nothing more, as well.
I have seen politicians and political-bureaucrats put information technologists through a grotesque range of systemic contortions to support purely selfish political motives. Sometimes the technologists merely spend a long time, and waste a great deal of money, at failure. Frequently a team of technologists is scapegoated and fired. Periodically the offending politico is also canned.
It did not take a genius to predict that information technology would be skinned by politicians in the election space.
I left my notebook in the seat-back pocket on a Delta commuter jet in Dallas, Texas. I called Delta for months hoping to retrieve it. My version of the story was lost forever.
I saw no reason to revive the project when it ceased to be fiction. What could I really add to make it any more interesting, or more surreal, than it already was?
I saw an article in the news this week that indicated electronic voting was being suspended in The Netherlands.
Sociology has been defined as the documentation of the obvious. Perhaps fiction is but a race to stay in front of current events.
Information technology
"pwned"
by politics
is now history
waiting
to be written.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
I am the most gullible person...
I have ever met. I used to be, at least. I want to believe everything.
I want to believe the people of Atlanta retain some trivial element of the warm southern hospitality for which the city is so famous. I want to believe such friendliness still exists in some part of the urban jewel of the south. I want to believe that some tiny fragment of the service industry there retains a legitimate smile and a genuine cordiality. This I want to believe. But the evidence is scant.
I want to believe that elected Democrats and the democratic platform are in some essential way related. I want to believe that the equitable and good core principles historically represented by the Democratic Party are somehow visible in the deeds and actions of at least a few current Democratic office holders. This I want to believe. But I cannot find any examples to prove it.
I want to believe that western society values people more than things, that Hobbes was wrong, that Marx was wrong, that nasty, brutish and short is not the means to justify an end gain. I want to believe that we expend greater effort to conquer hunger and provide health care than to achieve another market record. This I want to believe. But the poverty rate is enormous and death rates are so very different for those of no means that it would challenge even my gullibility to believe it.
I want to believe that the world is interested in its children. I want to believe that we really do everything possible to save energy, protect the environment, manage the green space, and to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and global warming. I want to believe that we adhere to our principles to build -- and leave -- a better world: to take only pictures and leave only foot prints. This I want to believe. But we make everything out of plastic, even plastic; and I saw not a single other pedestrian on my way to or from work today.
I want to believe that national boundaries are more than property lines to stratify wealth.
I'm gullible. I can believe these things.
Maybe
I
should
watch
more
television.
I want to believe the people of Atlanta retain some trivial element of the warm southern hospitality for which the city is so famous. I want to believe such friendliness still exists in some part of the urban jewel of the south. I want to believe that some tiny fragment of the service industry there retains a legitimate smile and a genuine cordiality. This I want to believe. But the evidence is scant.
I want to believe that elected Democrats and the democratic platform are in some essential way related. I want to believe that the equitable and good core principles historically represented by the Democratic Party are somehow visible in the deeds and actions of at least a few current Democratic office holders. This I want to believe. But I cannot find any examples to prove it.
I want to believe that western society values people more than things, that Hobbes was wrong, that Marx was wrong, that nasty, brutish and short is not the means to justify an end gain. I want to believe that we expend greater effort to conquer hunger and provide health care than to achieve another market record. This I want to believe. But the poverty rate is enormous and death rates are so very different for those of no means that it would challenge even my gullibility to believe it.
I want to believe that the world is interested in its children. I want to believe that we really do everything possible to save energy, protect the environment, manage the green space, and to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and global warming. I want to believe that we adhere to our principles to build -- and leave -- a better world: to take only pictures and leave only foot prints. This I want to believe. But we make everything out of plastic, even plastic; and I saw not a single other pedestrian on my way to or from work today.
I want to believe that national boundaries are more than property lines to stratify wealth.
I'm gullible. I can believe these things.
Maybe
I
should
watch
more
television.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Proving others are smarter than I...
is a passion of mine. I have often said, "If I am not the dumbest guy in the room, somebody has got to go."
I once frightened a new employee with that statement. He realized within a week or two that he, too, was smarter than I.
Why would I consider hiring someone with less talent and intelligence than I have.
I may be dumb, but I am not stupid.
Today Ray proved again that he is smarter than I by actually doing what I could only describe in a cartoon diagram. He did not need to prove he is smarter. It is unanimously accepted. I contributed in my small way with a challenge to cross the hill. He found a gold mine on the other side.
I benefit from being near such people. Sometimes a small nugget falls from their heavily loaded wagon.
I donate it to charity when I find one.
I have lashed my pony's halter to the rail on his buck-board. I wish him all of our common great success.
He deserves all of the credit.
It is
the least
I
can give,
when
it
is
not
the most
I can give.
I once frightened a new employee with that statement. He realized within a week or two that he, too, was smarter than I.
Why would I consider hiring someone with less talent and intelligence than I have.
I may be dumb, but I am not stupid.
Today Ray proved again that he is smarter than I by actually doing what I could only describe in a cartoon diagram. He did not need to prove he is smarter. It is unanimously accepted. I contributed in my small way with a challenge to cross the hill. He found a gold mine on the other side.
I benefit from being near such people. Sometimes a small nugget falls from their heavily loaded wagon.
I donate it to charity when I find one.
I have lashed my pony's halter to the rail on his buck-board. I wish him all of our common great success.
He deserves all of the credit.
It is
the least
I
can give,
when
it
is
not
the most
I can give.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
I envy the gall...
of a thief. I am enamored of anyone with so little anxiety - the prototypical sociopath.
Someone cut all of the wires off of my camper in the past week or so to get the copper. He (or they) cut the wires from three other campers on our mountain. He has also harvested copper wiring from some, perhaps many, houses in the area. Most boldly, I'm told, he felled trees to knock down power lines, and cultivated wire from that source. (I'm not certain power lines are copper, but our thief probably is not an electrical engineer.)
My Grandfather said, "A lock stops an honest thief." There are at least two types of thieves: those who steal because they can, and those who steal because they must. Some steal to get food; others steal because no one is looking. (This categorization omits the professional adventurer.)
I have hired a number of people from the area. I have sought help for various projects for several years. It is difficult to find people who want to work. I don't think most people steal - even most lazy people. But thieves who refuse available work earn no mercy.
The Cherokee County North Carolina police received a lot of press, and great accolades, a few years ago after their fortuitous, if accidental, capture of Eric Rudolph - the Olympic Bomber. He is alleged to have spent the better part of a decade "hiding" there. The current epidemic of destruction and theft of property has become clearly and well known to them.
Perhaps there would be limited incentive for the police to allocate appropriate and sufficient resources to solve such a case if it were only the personal property of a few snow-birds and rural folk located 25 miles from town. I have never seen the Cherokee County police within miles of my place -- except once when I called them. But this situation is a pretty substantial and wide-spread problem. I hope the attack on the other subdivisions and communities, and on the power company, will be sufficient to cause the police to engage.
I am pretty angry about the damage to my property. I would hate to think how I would react if I ever caught someone in the act.
It would be good
not
to have
a gun
if I did.
Post-Script: Only a few hours after I posted this article, I have learned via telephone that a cabin in our mountain subdivision has burned down. The police and fire department were still on the scene around 11:00 PM EST, according to friends in the area. There is nothing left of the cabin.
I know of no reason to suspect any linkage with the copper thief.
Someone cut all of the wires off of my camper in the past week or so to get the copper. He (or they) cut the wires from three other campers on our mountain. He has also harvested copper wiring from some, perhaps many, houses in the area. Most boldly, I'm told, he felled trees to knock down power lines, and cultivated wire from that source. (I'm not certain power lines are copper, but our thief probably is not an electrical engineer.)
My Grandfather said, "A lock stops an honest thief." There are at least two types of thieves: those who steal because they can, and those who steal because they must. Some steal to get food; others steal because no one is looking. (This categorization omits the professional adventurer.)
I have hired a number of people from the area. I have sought help for various projects for several years. It is difficult to find people who want to work. I don't think most people steal - even most lazy people. But thieves who refuse available work earn no mercy.
The Cherokee County North Carolina police received a lot of press, and great accolades, a few years ago after their fortuitous, if accidental, capture of Eric Rudolph - the Olympic Bomber. He is alleged to have spent the better part of a decade "hiding" there. The current epidemic of destruction and theft of property has become clearly and well known to them.
Perhaps there would be limited incentive for the police to allocate appropriate and sufficient resources to solve such a case if it were only the personal property of a few snow-birds and rural folk located 25 miles from town. I have never seen the Cherokee County police within miles of my place -- except once when I called them. But this situation is a pretty substantial and wide-spread problem. I hope the attack on the other subdivisions and communities, and on the power company, will be sufficient to cause the police to engage.
I am pretty angry about the damage to my property. I would hate to think how I would react if I ever caught someone in the act.
It would be good
not
to have
a gun
if I did.
Post-Script: Only a few hours after I posted this article, I have learned via telephone that a cabin in our mountain subdivision has burned down. The police and fire department were still on the scene around 11:00 PM EST, according to friends in the area. There is nothing left of the cabin.
I know of no reason to suspect any linkage with the copper thief.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
You'd think the same thing...
if you thought what I think.
Honor is not worth death for the poor. They are offered so little of the honor, so much of the death, in such great disproportion.
The wealth preserved beneath such moral concepts yields no legal tender. Honor provides no currency at the general store. No clothes, no bedding, no shelter, no food be had.
If honor is worth death, let us make infantry and marine officers of the those who vote for war. Let the offspring of our high office holders stand in the fore as foot soldiers in the armed services.
No, honor is not worth death to them. Death is contemptible.
There may be times, even judged by history, when the capable owe death to a cause. So many times the price was high. Too high. So many times we would have paid so much more.
Honor aspires to rule. It offers itself as a credential, an entitlement, a grant to the acquisition of power.
Science fiction and philosophy conspire to suggest my consciousness is contained within the dream of God.
Then
he
is
having
a nightmare.
Honor is not worth death for the poor. They are offered so little of the honor, so much of the death, in such great disproportion.
The wealth preserved beneath such moral concepts yields no legal tender. Honor provides no currency at the general store. No clothes, no bedding, no shelter, no food be had.
If honor is worth death, let us make infantry and marine officers of the those who vote for war. Let the offspring of our high office holders stand in the fore as foot soldiers in the armed services.
No, honor is not worth death to them. Death is contemptible.
There may be times, even judged by history, when the capable owe death to a cause. So many times the price was high. Too high. So many times we would have paid so much more.
Honor aspires to rule. It offers itself as a credential, an entitlement, a grant to the acquisition of power.
Science fiction and philosophy conspire to suggest my consciousness is contained within the dream of God.
Then
he
is
having
a nightmare.
Monday, August 27, 2007
I was never in my life nervous...
before I sat down at the table next to the Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources and a bunch of other politically appointed bureaucrats I didn't know (prior to that time).
I wasn't nervous until I suddenly realized how Gary Redding, then Deputy Commissioner of DCH, very adeptly distorted everything I had said beyond anything I could recognize. I like Gary Redding. Unlike many in public service, he's really quite talented.
But talented at what?
The truth is just another tool to political appointees -- as useful as pliers when you need them, and just as useless when a philips-head screw requires extraction.
I loved working in state government. Being in charge there is not for the timid.
While I came to like and respect Gary and many of the others at the table that day, only a few politically motivated bureaucrats ever gained my trust. (Kate and Tom, among them.) Most state employees are lifers -- with all that comes with such a committment. Many are gifted. A few climb, if only briefly, well beyond their ("her") greatly limited talent.
I hope Gary's still in charge of something substantial and worthy of his enormous talent.
I hope those who work with him
know enough
to
be
nervous.
I wasn't nervous until I suddenly realized how Gary Redding, then Deputy Commissioner of DCH, very adeptly distorted everything I had said beyond anything I could recognize. I like Gary Redding. Unlike many in public service, he's really quite talented.
But talented at what?
The truth is just another tool to political appointees -- as useful as pliers when you need them, and just as useless when a philips-head screw requires extraction.
I loved working in state government. Being in charge there is not for the timid.
While I came to like and respect Gary and many of the others at the table that day, only a few politically motivated bureaucrats ever gained my trust. (Kate and Tom, among them.) Most state employees are lifers -- with all that comes with such a committment. Many are gifted. A few climb, if only briefly, well beyond their ("her") greatly limited talent.
I hope Gary's still in charge of something substantial and worthy of his enormous talent.
I hope those who work with him
know enough
to
be
nervous.
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