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Tuesday, November 29, 2005Tic tic tic ticHere's an interesting world statistical web site someone showed me recently. Interesting facts: many more movies are seen than newspapers read; more people died of AIDs than cancer around the world; and so far this year there have been three times more bikes than cars produced. Dead Medium WalkingHere's another article buttressing my claim that DVDs are a dead medium walking. The studios stand to gain even more from a huge audience willing to pay to download movies from their libraries. Unlike DVDs, which require manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and disposing of returns, it costs almost nothing to download a movie or cartoon. Indeed, all the costs of transmission would be born by the cable operator (or a site like the Apple Music Store), whose cut would be less, under present arrangements, than retailers get on DVDs. So, if a movie were a huge hit, such as Shrek, and millions of orders flooded in, the marginal cost of filling them would be zero. The consumer, once he bought the download, could watch it where and when he chose to just as he once watched a DVD. And, it will be higher quality than the DVD. Monday, November 28, 2005One AnswerHere's one answer, and the common one, to my earlier questions about why the U.S. savings rate plummeted in the early 1990s. The answer would be more convincing if the authors had used a longer time period. They only went back to the early 1960s which accounts for only one secular bear market and one secular bull market. Did the U.S. savings rate plummet in previous times of asset appreciation and low interest rates? GolfingI went golfing on Sunday. Playing golf is like being a fan of the Red Sox through the year 2003. Wednesday, November 23, 2005What Happened? In the early 1990s, we Americans stopped saving. This happened in the midst of economic good times, in the middle of huge boom. The question is why. The End of SonySony's stupid and illegal attempt to install spyware on our computers through their music CDs is garnering lots of attention nowadays and a lawsuit from the State of Texas. I got screwed up by them when I tried to play the new Neil Diamond CD on my computer. Sony is killing their business and their artists through these shenanigans. In recent years, I'm always annoyed when I find a song I like by an artist who is on the Sony label because I know it will be difficult to buy. Often you won't find it on iTunes and Sony's download site is expensive or cumbersome. What do I do? I either don't buy the song or find it through "other means." Either way, neither Sony nor the artist is getting paid. If I was Neil Diamond or any other Sony musician, I'd tell them to go f*** themselves. Tuesday, November 22, 2005Oprah, Dave, Dave, OprahThe biggest feud in show business is over--Oprah Winfrey is going on the David Letterman show. One complaint about the article: it talks of Dave's "failed hosting of the Academy Awards". Some of us found it a brilliant success! SamSpeak Joke of the WeekI read President Bush pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey this week--but not before Cheney tortured it. Dave, Oprah. Oprah, Dave. Premature withdrawalTNR's The Plank references a PEW Poll on Americans and foreign policy and notes: A new Pew Institute poll helpfully reminds us not to take U.S. public opionion about foreign affairs too seriously. When asked whether certain countries posessed nuclear weapons, nearly a third said that Libya does. More people--55 percent--believe Iran has nuclear weapons than think Great Britain (52 percent) or France (38 percent) does. Only 48 percent got Israel right. And just over one-fifth didn't know or weren't sure about Russia--Russia! Which has some 20,000 nukes. Yeesh.On a slightly more pertinent note, the poll found that the savvier Americans are about global affairs (based on their knowledge of key world figures and events), the less likely they are to support a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Sixty-six percent of the least knowledgable folks--i.e., ones who couldn't even ID Vladimir Putin--support a fast withdrawal. Only 48 percent of the best-informed ones took that position. Perhaps that offers some small consolation to the currently besieged stay-the-course crowd. So this means, I guess, stupid people support immediate withdrawal from Iraq (Who are you, Dick Cheney?--Floyd)? Monday, November 21, 2005Walk the LineMovies are made up of moments. Walk the Line is filled with many special ones, perhaps none more so than the opening scene. We see a guard standing outside of Folsom prison and we can barely hear the famous Johnny Cash boom chicka boom rhythm, just audible coming from somewhere inside the Big House. Soon we're in the prison itself and there's Joaquin Phoenix, or rather, Johnny Cash. I have to admit I was dubious of Joaquin's ability to play the great man in black. But Good God, he does an amazing job. Even though I read Joaquin's singing really did do Mr. Cash justice, I had a hard time believing until I saw the movie for myself. Like Jamie Foxx's embodiment of Ray Charles last year, in Walk the Line, after a while you forget Joaquin and merely watch Johnny throughout the film. Roger Ebert describes Joaquin's performance just right during one of the other special moments of the movie, a scene when Johnny sings Folsom Prison Blues in the recording studio for the first time: One of the key passages in Phoenix's performance comes as he learns, while in the process of singing this song, how he should sound and who he should be. You can hear his musicians picking up the tempo to keep pace with him. He starts the song as a loser and ends as Johnny Cash. Reese Witherspoon is equally good as June Carter (Reese may very well be the cutest person alive). The movie leaves large parts of Johnny's life out to concentrate on the great love story of Johnny Cash and June Carter--one of the great devotion tales of our time or any other. A ring of fire full of burning desire it was. But, of course, there was the love of the fans as well and most important, Johnny Cash's love of music. When you hear the deep baritone of Johnny Cash boom from the screen one realizes how much they wish the man still came around. Smoke ItA band of state attorney generals are demanding, er, asking hollywood to insert anti-smoking messages into DVDS and to do public service announcements against smoking. Government, as is too often the case today, is abusing its power and overreachng. If the request had come from a group of state health officials one might consider it more innocuous but coming from the AGs--a group that has sued the tobacco industry and Microsoft, their so-called "voluntary" request can only be interpreted as a threatening shot across the bow of another industry. Saturday, November 19, 2005Murtha MadnessI'm still confused by people like Rep John Murtha calling for immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. How will that help? As Kausfiles says: He seems primarily concerned with the health of our soldiers ("[t]hey don't deserve to continue to suffer. They're the targets") and the military sector as a whole, which is fine. But there are also the Iraqis to worry about, not to mention the larger cause of democracy in the region. Murtha concludes: "We have become a catalyst for the violence." But increasingly we also seem to be the only thing standing in the way of wholesale violence against the Sunnis. (Does some portion of the Sunni leadership now secretly want us to stay?) Again, what are the goals of Murtha and others who want us to withdraw now? Saving U.S. troop lives? Increasingly the violence is against fellow Iraqis not against American troops. Finding an endgame for troop levels? It's already clear that US troop levels are likely to slowly fall next year after this December's elections. In fact, violence against U.S. troops has fallen because Iraqis are slowly taking larger roles in policing and combat operations. I was against the war but now that we're there, have started them down the road of elections, destroyed their infrastructure and created a situation which could lead to civil war, isn't it the height of irresponsibility to say, "never mind, we're out of here, good luck." Yes, there will be more American military who will be killed and badly injured but if we leave now creating a larger version of late 1990s Afghanistan aren't we putting many more American military (and civilians) at risk for the future? And yes the risk of creating a new 1990s Afghanistan was one of the reasons not to go to war in Iraq in the first place. But we did. We can't change that. All we can do is somehow make it right, or at least less wrong. Friday, November 18, 2005Doom and Gloom UpdateThere's some concern I've been too upbeat lately (by whom?--Floyd. Well, me for one but I'm sure there's other people out there). Some may think it difficult to find clouds in the silver linings of 3% GDP growth, a deficit lower than last year's and a still low unemployment rate. But those folks just aren't diligent enough. Let's note the rapid growth all over the world in money supply according to figures from that old financial whiz, Richard Russell: Australia plus 9.8%. Britain plus 11.2%. Canada plus 9.8%. Denmark plus 16.3%. Sweden plus 5.6%.Switzerland plus 6.3%. United States plus 6.6%. Euro area plus 8.5%. Or how 'bout the fact the long term debt situation in the U.S. is as bad as ever. Now that Social Security reform is buried under an avalanche of Plame refuse, pre-war intelligence controversies, Hurricane Katrina blunders and all of the rest, the day when the boomers begin retiring creeps ever closer as we continue to do nothing. Oh, and of course, neither Republicans nor Democrats appear ready to tackle the even larger Medicare problem. Then there is the negative savings rate in the country or the $7 trillion in mortgage debt, not to mention that old American stalwart of credit card debt which has grown $2.7 trillion to $10.764 trillion. Yes, the storm clouds continue to gather. Of course, although the current crop of electeds don't seem to care about the country's problems, plenty of other people do and have some ideas on what needs to be done to fix them. If work slows down, more on this in the next few days. Thursday, November 17, 2005China and Taiwan
Bush is right to say China should emulate Taiwan's progress on democratization and liberalization and should improve its human rights record. Of course, he'd have more of a moral bully pulpit if his administration wasn't torturing detainees and hadn't held prisoners incommunicado, prisoners that include American citizens.
More Kicking Television
How good is the new live Wilco double-CD? While driving home from work listening to disc 2, I was upset the traffic wasn't worse so I could hear more. Kicking Television is one of the few CDs I've bought since getting an iPod. It's frankly one of the best live CDs I've ever heard. Not only are the songs great, of course, but the sound achieves the perfect balance of hearing the live audience with the crispness of the instruments. The Late Greats, Airline to Heaven, and Ashes of American Flags are particularly amazing. The only negative to the disc is the lack of songs from earlier Wilco discs such as Being There and Summer Teeth. I've always wanted to own a live version of Misunderstood from Being There and it is the first song on disc one of Kicking Television but the live versions of Misunderstood were better in concerts from a few years ago when the song was more the center of the show (Wait, don't you have a download of Misunderstood from a show in the mid-90s?--Floyd. Uh, my lawyer will deny it and besides, it was an acoustic version from just before Being There was released). But this is a minor complaint about what is an amazing two-disc gift from Wilco this year. Go buy it.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005Credit Where Credit is DueMany moons ago--and I'm too lazy to link to the archived post--I wrote about the inane visa policy of the current Administration that made it difficult for international students to get visas to study in the United States. I noted how this was shooting our national foot in a variety of ways. Countries such as Ireland and Australia over the last few years marketed to these international students in part by saying they wouldn't be able to get a U.S. visa. Well, Congress and the Administration have fixed the problem and it is now much easier for international students to obtain visas and study in the United States again. In fact, the new policy is working so well that the UW MBA program has more international students than it knows what to do with. (So there's on thing you can stop complaing about!--Floyd. Yes, but don't worry, I'll find a replacement). Chinese LabsOn a related note, I was talking to a Chinese woman last night whose husband is getting his PhD in a science discipline here at the UW. I asked her what were their plans when her husband finishes his PhD. She said they would not be going back to China because the lab equipment there was not up to snuff. Eventually the equipment will be but for now the vast number of scientists China is producing having better scientific opportunities elsewhere. Kicking TelevisionBought new Wilco live CD. Great disc. More later. Monday, November 14, 2005Not Part of the Fog
Andrew Sullivan had some great stuff regarding torture on Sunday, especially this post.
Walk the LineJohnny Cash had one requirement for the star of "Walk the Line": "Whoever plays me, make sure they don't handle the guitar like it's a baby. Make them hold it like they own it!" So begins an interesting article by Roger Ebert on Walk the Line, the Johnny and June Cash biopic coming out later this week. I'm a long-time Johnny Cash fan (making pancakes on Sundays while listening to Sunday Morning Coming Down and other songs, right?--Floyd Right.) who wrote this upon the giant's death. Saturday, November 12, 2005Torture is a Tactic that Does Not WorkMore on how torture, besides being immoral, does not even work as a tactic to extract useful information: The Israelis, Baer said, have learned that they can gain valuable information by establishing personal relationships with the inmates and gaining their trust. "They found that torture, abusive tactics, made things overall worse for them politically," Baer said. "The Israelis are friendly with their prisoners. They play cards with them and allow them to contact their families. They are getting in their minds to determine what makes up a suicide bomber." Friday, November 11, 2005Media DownHere's some interesting stats from some blog called Longtail about the decline in media. It begs the question: What are we all doing? Down: Box Office: down by 7% this year (tickets per capita have fallen every year since 2001). Newspapers: circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year. Music: Sales are down another 5.7% this year; although digital downloads (still just 6% of the business) are climbing nicely. Radio: down 4% this year alone, continuing a multi-decade decline. TV: Total viewership is still rising, but as channels proliferate and the audience fragments the rating of the average show continues to decline. Magazines: Ad revenues are up a bit although the number of ad pages is flat (they're charging more per page). Circulation is also flat, while newsstand sales are at an all-time low. Videogames: it's the final few months of the current generation of consoles, which tends to the trough of the buying cycle. Sales were down 20% in Sept, but will probably pick up by Christmas with the launch of the Xbox 360. Short-sighted, Juvenile ThinkingVia Instapundit, we see the convoluted logic of suspending civil rights in the so-called "war on terror" from conservative writer Mark Steyn: I do think that what's pathetic about all Western countries, including the United States, including France, including Canada, and a lot of other countries, is that they make these sort of high school sophist arguments about terrorism, as if it's some sort of theoretical debate. It's not. We're dealing with a very difficult situation here. And if you accord to terrorists all the rights of somebody who gets arrested for holding up a liquor store in Des Moines, you are going to lose to the terrorists, because when you accord them the full rights of somebody who is a criminal, you make it impossible to prosecute this as a war, which is what it is. The problem with Steyn's thinking is he assumes that our government is only capturing the guilty when he complains about "according to terrorists all the rights" of somebody arrested for holding up a liquor store. This is a strange assumption for someone who calls himself a conservative, supposedly someone with a distrust of government. Steyn doesn't want government telling us to wear a motorcycle helmet but it's okay for that same government to arrest someone, suspend habeas corpus, hold them in secret facilities, and torture the hell out of them. Steyn's second mistake (and he makes many more in his tortured logic, but being for torture, he has no problem with such things) is his claim that by adhering to certain moral and legal codes it "makes it impossible to prosecute this as a war." The whole argument against torture is that is goes against the codes of war civilized countries have developed--against, for example, the Geneva Conventions. Far from making it impossible to prosecute a war, our adhering to such principles protects our own soldiers, provides us moral suasion in the supposed goals of the war--liberalizing the Islamic world--and stops us from extracting false information from prisoners willing to say anything to end their pain and suffering from torture. Thursday, November 10, 2005Steroid OilAs we fill up our gas tanks and exercise our outrage while Congress grills oil company executives, financial analyst Eric Fry reminds us: ...the combined cumulative earnings of Citigroup and Bank of America from 1995 through the third quarter of this year totaled an astounding $223 billion, a sum which happens to be $14 billion HIGHER than the combined cumulative earnings of ExxonMobil and Chevron over the same timeframe. In each and every one of those ten years, the two big finance companies earned more money than the two big oil companies. Never once did Exxon and Chevron manage to produce an "obscene" profit that exceeded that of Citibank and Bank of America...NEVER ONCE. And INDCJournal notes: For example, "Exxon earned its biggest-ever profit, $9.9 billion, on revenue of more than $100 billion in the third quarter." I'm no economist, but that seems to mean that Exxon is actually making just under ten cents for every dollar they bring in (I'm not sure whether that is pre-tax or post-tax). That doesn't strike me as a "windfall." It just seems like a decent return. Am I missing something? Will Exxon CEO/robber baron Lee Raymond include this episode in the "Suckers!" chapter of his future Ribald Tales Of Corporate Malfeasance tell-all? Or is the Senate putting on a big show over nothing? Many Slices to the pieThis section of a long article on steroids in ESPN is fascinating not so much for the additional evidence that Barry Bonds is a liar (and a jerk) but because we learn there is someone out there who has dedicated their lives to documenting the distance of home runs. Measuring Home RunsThe Only Thing We Have to Fear...Interesting post by someone about the doom sayers (Is the talking about you?--Floyd. No, all my doom and gloom is perfectly sensible!). How did the human race survive all of that to end up at a point where today it’s practically afraid of its own shadow? We are all the descendants of those who came before us, who in each of their lives saw and experienced things daily that would make each of us wet our pants in fear. We face none of those horrible things in our lives today, yet we are more in fear of life itself than any of those people were in theirs while they faced very real threats and not the imagined ones of that we face in ours. Wednesday, November 09, 2005Limited Government, uh, Except for the Big ThingsNational Review, the bastion of conservative thought, has come out against the McCain legislation banning torture. But we don't want to rule out pressuring high-value detainees in ways that fall short of torture but would draw the disapproval of Human Rights Watch. We have gained valuable intelligence through such means and could do so again. In today's political environment, however, it is impossible to say this without being accused of wanting to stack naked detainees in pyramids and break their legs. As always, I find it remarkable that people who are allegedly for limited government, are willing to give government such amazing levels of power--in this case over detainees. National Review, which doesn't trust government to run health care thinks government does have the ability and foresight to abuse humans--the CIA will always catch only the guilty and magically know just the right amount of force that is necessary and moral to extract useful information. An Overview of TortureNational Review's editors may want to put aside their own rag for a moment and check out this extensive overview of the use of torture in this week's New Yorker. I spent much of my twenties working for a Congressman, often attempting to help Eastern European dissidents get out of the gulag. It's difficult to stress how outraged I am to find out my own country is using those same prisons to secretly detain people today. And what are they doing to these detainees in these prisons? We are asked to trust our government, a government we already know has tortured and killed other detainees. Bush and Cheney have made those of us who worked for human rights around the world look like fools. Smoke It!That's the title of a good Dandy Warhol's song, but I use it talk about Initiative I901 which would ban smoking in public places in Washington State. A friend asked how I was voting on this initiative. I replied: As far as I901, my position has been abundantly clear, smoking should be against the law since it impacts other people—we breathe in their air ash. On the other hand, I would legalize cocaine (but users could only ingest by snorting since smoking crack would, of course, like cigarettes, impact others around the user), heroin (see cocaine parenthesis vis a vis intake methods) and LSD, among other currently illegal drugs. I, for one, would far rather have someone sitting next to me snorting cocaine than smoking a cigarette at Marco’s Supper Club or any of the other finer or lesser dining and drinking establishments around town. I pine for the day when I walk out of my office building and gingerly step around people snorting lines off the cracks in the sidewalk instead of coughing through a gauntlet of cigarette smokers. Tuesday, November 08, 2005The Busting of the BoomersA friend of mine's neighbor is out of work and money. She's in her late 50s and has no savings. She still has a large mortgage on her house. I was reminded of her story when I saw this in the LA Times: If mortgage rates rise sharply or home prices fall, many homeowners could be in financial turmoil. They may be unable to service their loans, or could even find that their homes are worth less than their mortgages. Such a prospect seems unimaginably distant to Doug Levy, a university administrator in San Francisco. When his two-bedroom condominium rose in value by 10% — which took nine months in the hot Bay Area real estate market — Levy refinanced. That increased the size of his mortgage but gave him $25,000 to pay bills and take a modest skiing vacation in British Columbia. He’s considering tapping his equity again if his condo continues to appreciate. “It’s like I’m sleeping in my piggy bank,” said Levy, 44. “In this market, real estate is a liquid asset. There is no longer an incentive to paying off your mortgage. The only way I'll ever pay mine off is if I win the lottery. I'm never going to be able to retire," Levy says, "because I'll never have enough money in the bank"... Yes, Mr. Levy and my friend's neighbor and millions of boomers just like him figure they'll just keep on working--life will continue as it always has, they will not get sick, there will be no recessions, it will be smooth sailing 'til they peacefully die in their sleep. The rest of us will pay for their fantasies. Calvin and HobbesLike many folks, I was a big Calvin and Hobbes fan. This article, especially the panels in the slide show, reminds me why. Burrito BattlesI once was mugged for a KFC two-piece chicken dinner. They never would have gotten my burrito. Police: Burrito Sparks 7-Eleven Fight Girl Allegedly Releases Pit Bull On Attackers POSTED: 10:58 am EST November 3, 2005 WASHINGTON -- The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating an early-morning fight that supposedly started over a burrito. Police said a man inside the store didn't have enough money to pay for his burrito and left the store to get more. While he was outside, another of the store's patrons decided to buy that burrito. News4 talked to that patron, who didn't want to be identified. He said when the man came back into the store, he became livid that someone had bought his burrito and the fight escalated from there. Police said the fight then spilled outside the store and at some point, the girlfriend of the original purchaser opened a car door and released a 75- to 80-pound pit bull, which bit three men, including an innocent bystander. Cmdr. Larry McCoy said people have to maintain a dog on a leash, and if someone did release the dog they could face criminal charges as well. The men bitten by the dog were transported to Howard University Hospital for treatment and released. Police said animal control was called and took the pit bull away. Investigators said they will take a good look at the stores surveillance tapes before filing any charges. Monday, November 07, 2005Bush LiesBush claims today, "We do not torture." This is a lie. And, as evidenced by his administration's attempt to create an exemption in the McCainlegislationn for the CIA to torture, Bush has every intention of continuing to torture detainees...and I'm sure he'll continue to lie about it. Cheney The TOne of the interesting aspects of the New Yorker interview with Brent Scowcroft was his confusion over what the hell happened to the once level headed Dick Cheney. The VP is leading the charge to create an exception in the McCain legislation allowing for the CIA to torture at will. As Kevin Drum points out, torturing detainees doesn't even lead to good information never mind the immorality of the tactic and bad PR it creates: Al-Libi's capture, some sources say, was an early turning point in the government's internal debates over interrogation methods...."They duct-taped his mouth, cinched him up and sent him to Cairo" for more-fearsome Egyptian interrogations, says the ex-FBI official. "At the airport the CIA case officer goes up to him and says, 'You're going to Cairo, you know. Before you get there I'm going to find your mother and I'm going to f--- her.' So we lost that fight." No wonder DIA was skeptical of al-Libi's information. Not only did the details of his testimony seem inconsistent with known facts, but DIA knew perfectly well he had given up this information only under torture and was probably just saying anything that came to mind in order to get it to stop. Cheney appears to be the one leading the charge for torture in the administration. According to Powell's chief of staff, "Vice President Dick Cheney's office was responsible for directives that led to U.S. soldiers' abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan." As I noted in my post on the New Yorker interview, Cheney was in the White House on September 11 with an airplane apparently headed his way. Not to go all psycho-babble on you but it's like our tender VP is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and acting against his usual instincts the last five years. It makes one hope there really is more to Plame-gate than meets the eye, something that will lead to Cheney's resignation. The French RiotsI have not much to add that you probably aren't seeing elsewhere. When I read of the riots after the first three nights, I nearly posted that I had a feeling this would be one of the big stories in the coming days (no, really, I did) but held off because it was merely an intuition. The riots are a complicated situation with probably multiple causes and perhaps the reason for the first night of rioting is not necessarily the reason for the continued rioting. In addition, it is worth noting that when the French voted down the EU Constitution, many felt it was voted down because the people were fearful of reforms the ten-million-page (or something like that) constitution would bring to the country's economy. Perhaps these voters now have a greater fear. HmmmImprisoned BloggersIn case you haven't heard, and you probably haven't because most of what passes for news in our rags, radios and TVs isn't, an Egyptian blogger was recently arrested for writing what he thought. Here's a small way you can help Abdolkarim. Um, limited government, please
I'll never understand why people who call themselves conservatives, are willing to give so much power to the executive branch, just because a Republican is in the white house.
Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot. Friday, November 04, 2005Royal PainsI saw in the paper that four out of five Americans say they are uninterested in the royal visit of Charles and Camilla. I was heartened by this because I think royalty is stupid and American love of royalty even more so. The stupidest big news event of all time was the mass hysteria over Princess Di's death. So I'm glad that four out of five of us don't give a rat's ass about Chuck and Cammy's visit to the U.S...but then I worry it's because of our feelings for Di or because Chuck and Cammy are, well, kind of ugly. I'll be far happier when William comes and no one cares. Mormon SecuritySomebody from LDS Security called me the other day wanting to ask about the security during the infamous 1999 Seattle WTO meetings (There was security during those meetings?--Floyd. Well, no, that's what he wanted to know about). LDS turned out to stand for Latter Day Saints--the Mormons. The WTO meetings are scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in mid-December and lo and behold the Mormons have a building a block or so away from the convention center where the meetings are taking place. The church security guy wanted to know what to expect and how to secure their building. I have little expertise in either but found interesting both the concern for security by the church and the fact they have a building in Hong Kong. Of course, the Mormons are big in Asia (Tom Waits is big in Japan) but I just don't think about it in practical terms. Thursday, November 03, 2005Hitchens on Scowcroft
In Slate, Christopher Hitchens makes my point a little more harshly about Scowcroft's crack about 50 years of peace in the Middle East:
Scowcroft to allow him to hang himself, most especially at the critical stage where the old reactionary proudly announced that the pre-existing status quo had meant: "Fifty years of peace." I had not known until I read this article that Scowcroft was a Mormon, and this may have no importance. His willingness to believe anything could well stem from another source. French Frying of World Trade
An interesting article in Newsweek on France's protectionist ways threatening the Doha Round of the WTO, scheduled to conclude next month in Hong Kong:
But with protectionist voices gathering strength on both sides of the Atlantic, there may no longer be a consensus to expandÂor even preserveÂthe international free-trade order. Perhaps this article is too pessimistic. It's not surprise that push back on progress comes from declining countries such as France (and in some ways, the U.S.). If they dsabotagege the "international free-trade order," Asia and other regions on the rise will find ways to rebuild it or go around the dead states. Wednesday, November 02, 2005An Old Lion RoarsThe old lion of the right, William F. Buckley, is far more concerned about the leaking of classified information, in this case Valerie Wilson's status as an employee of the CIA, than I. It gives one pause. Real Campaign Finance ReformA simple tax system with no deductions (but not necessarily flat) would do more to reform campaign finance than any of the wrong-headed McCain-Feingold ideas of yesteryear and tomorrow. The President's tax commission recommendations are flawed, however. Although they eliminate a huge number of deductions and incentives, they do not eliminate all and, in fact, create some new ones. More on this later. Copernicus Bursts the USAI was talking to someone the other day who recently traveled to Asia for the first time in many years. He told me how surprised he was that no one was paying attention to the United States. The talk and news, he said, is about China or developments in Japan or any number of other things but rarely about the U.S. This is my experience traveling overseas as well, and not just in Asia. We here in the United States, and especially those residing in the nation's capitol, like to think everything revolves around our country and that the rest of the world is paying attention to our every word. It's not true. Intra-Asian trade is growing ever larger. Russia's issues have little to do with the United States. Japan is ahead of us technologically in many ways. It's important we remember we're not as important as we sometimes like to think we are. Plame MiscAccording to one of the grand jury members in the Plame leak investigation, we should read closely Matthew Cooper's article from early this summer--apparently it contains some important information. I haven't read it but you all feel free to. Tuesday, November 01, 2005Technical Problems
Broadband has been down at home--hopefully I can post later today.
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