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An Endless War
When the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, Petraeus said to Rick Atkinson, "Tell me how this ends." We're still waiting for the answer.
There's been an attempt to rename the Global War On Terror, and one suggestion has been The Long War. Kind of depressing, but perhaps it's a case of truth in advertising. The message from Petraeus and Crocker is that any resolution of the situation in Iraq is a long, long way away. And depends upon the Iraqis doing things that so far they've been reluctant to do. (Anyone getting impatient?) Here's some of the testimony this morning in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (via Federal Document Clearing House):
CROCKER [Opening statement]: In my view, a secure, stable, democratic Iraq at peace with its neighbors is attainable. In my judgment, the cumulative trajectory of political, economic and other developments in Iraq is upwards, although the slope of that line is not steep. The process will not be quick. It will be uneven, punctuated by setbacks, as well as achievements, and it will require substantial U.S. resolve and commitment. There will be no single moment at which we can claim victory. Any turning point will likely only be recognized in retrospect....
PETRAEUS: ... I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level of brigade combat teams by next summer, withdrawing one-quarter of our combat brigades by that time without jeopardizing in the security gains that we have fought so hard to achieve. Beyond that, while noting that the situation in Iraq remains complex, difficult and sometimes downright frustrating, I also believe that it is possible for us to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time, though doing so will be neither quick nor easy....I believe Iraq's problems will require a long-term effort. There are no easy answers or quick solutions. And though we both believe this effort can succeed, it will take time. Our assessments underscore, in fact, the importance of recognizing that a premature drawdown of our forces would likely have devastating consequences.
--
BIDEN: Mr. Ambassador, you indicated that progress will not be quick. In non-diplomatic speak, what does that mean? Should we be telling the American people that we're there for another three, four, five, six, seven, 10 years in relatively large numbers? What do you mean by "It will not be quick"?
CROCKER: I think in the past we have set some expectations that simply couldn't be met. And I'm trying not to do that.
BIDEN: I'm trying to get an accurate estimate.
CROCKER: In terms of concrete things like force levels, as General Petraeus said, neither of us believe we can see beyond next summer. It would be...
BIDEN: But you are seeing beyond next summer. You're saying the process will not be quick. Are you talking about not quick meaning a time frame of a year, or are you talking not quick being well beyond the end of next summer?
CROCKER: It could be well beyond the end of next summer. It certainly will be well beyond the end of next summer before Iraq can achieve the end state I've laid out. There's no question.
--
HAGEL: ... where is this going to go?
Because the question that is going to continue to be asked -- and you all know it and you have to live with it -- and when you ask questions, as we all do, about is it worth it, the continued investment of American blood and treasure...
Now, where is this going?
We have got too many disconnects here, General -- way too many disconnects.
Are we going to dismiss the five reports that I just noted?
I would say to you, Ambassador, one of your quotes: "If we don't be careful we are going to see Iraq devolve into a civil war."
Come on. Our national intelligence report, earlier this year, said we're in a civil war. It is sectarian violence.
But yet you said that in your testimony this morning. You give us a great inventory of what a brutal, bloody dictator Saddam was. Well, we know that. That is not the issue here.
Are we going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we are doing now, for what? The president said let's buy time. Buy time? For what?
Every report I've seen, and I assume both of you agree with this, there's been, really, very little, if any, political process that is the ultimate core issue, political reconciliation in Iraq.
CROCKER: ... at a minimum now, we've got an environment developing, not fully developed, but developing with violence at low enough levels where a meaningful discussion on national reconciliation can take place. That's now what needs to happen.
PETRAEUS: We are talking about really, sort of, finding who are the irreconcilables and trying to isolate them and then to help the Iraqi government to bring the reconcilables to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. And that is what has happened, again, most notably in Anbar but it is applicable to some degree in other areas, as well.
--
BOXER: ... we are sending out troops where they're not wanted, with no end in sight, in the middle of a civil war, in the middle of the mother of all mistakes...
OBAMA: I think that some of the frustration you hear from some of the questioners is that we have now set the bar so low that modest improvement in what was a completely chaotic situation, to the point where now we just have the levels of intolerable violence that existed in June of 2006 is considered success, and it's not.
This continues to be a disastrous foreign policy mistake. And we are now confronted with the question: How do we clean up the mess and make the best out of a situation in which there are no good options, there are bad options and worse options?
[Tell me how this ends.]--
Did anyone see the soccer this morning? North Korea tying the U.S. 2-2? The sensational save by Hope Solo in the 94th minute?
The U.S. was lucky to get the tie. Here's Steven Goff's soccer blog. Good write-up here.
Most Hyped Congressional Hearing Ever? [Updated]
Petraeus-Crocker will start their all-week national briefing today at 12:30 at the House, and go all afternoon and then pop up on Fox tonight. Senate testimony is tomorrow. Mike Allen of The Politico gives you the full run-down of what promises to be National Petraeus & Crocker Week. I'll add transcript excerpts to the blog later today.
--
Mike Abramowitz covers the hearing:
" The long-awaited testimony this afternoon of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, once seen as a potential turning point in war policy, seemed more like an exercise of kicking the can down the road."
Some excerpts I fished from Federal Document Clearing House:
Petraeus:
... Two weeks ago, I provided recommendations for the way ahead in Iraq to the members of my chain of command and the Joints Chiefs of Staff. The essence of the approach recommended is captured and it's title: "Security While Transitioning: From leading, to partnering, to overwatch."
... I'm going to be up front. You know, none of us want to stay in Iraq forever. We all want to come home. We all have days of frustration and all the rest of that.
But what we want to do is come home in the right way, having added, I guess, to the heritage of our services, accomplished the mission that our country has laid out for us.
... we are not going to kill our way out of all these problems in Iraq. You're not going to kill or capture all of the Sadr militia any more than we are going to kill or capture all the insurgents in Iraq. And in fact, what we have tried very hard to do is to identify who the irreconcilables are, if you will, on either end of the spectrum, Sunni and Shia, and then to figure out where do the reconcilables begin and try to reach out to the reconcilables.
Some of this is a little bit distasteful. It is not easy sitting across the table, let's say, or drinking tea with someone whose tribal members may have shot at our forces or, in fact, drawn the blood -- killed our forces.
We learned a bit, in fact, about this from my former deputy commander, Lieutenant General Graham Lamb, former head of 22 SAS and the director of special forces in the United Kingdom. And he reminded us that you reconcile with your enemies, not with your friends. That's why it's called reconciliation.
And he talked about how he sat across the table from individuals who are former IRA members who had been swinging pipes at his lads, as he put it, just a few years earlier. That was quite instructive for us.
--
I've never seen a congressional hearing hyped so intensely. This is a hearing that's been on the calendar for, what, six months? "Let's wait until we hear what Petraeus has to say in September" has been the White House mantra.
Sometimes I wonder if hearings are mostly for show. Call me crazy.
From the Style section, January 1993:
'In Washington a hearing can break out at any moment, like a pickup basketball game. A congressman walks into a room, sees a long desk and a microphone and FPPPT! suddenly there are people testifying.
'Hearings have become so popular, so oversubscribed by the public, that lines form outside committee rooms and bike messengers are hired to wait for hours from the crack of dawn so that big shots can slip into place at the last minute.
'Nothing actually happens. Nothing is ever in doubt. If, for example, the confirmation of one of Bill Clinton's Cabinet appointees were at risk, the real politicking would be behind the scenes, not at the actual confirmation hearings. Once in a while there will be a big revelation at a hearing -- say, Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield's disclosure that presidential discussions of Watergate were captured on secret Oval Office tapes -- but most hearings are set pieces, with everyone performing a previously scripted role. It's a school play, dull, dutiful, but with a feeling of great achievement at the end.'
--
Here's the summary of the recent GAO report on Iraq.
Via Scarecrow at Firedoglake, here's the New Yorker story on the various strategies for withdrawing from Iraq. The writer, George Packer, previews Petraeus-Crocker:
'...their testimony is likely to be unremarkable. Administration officials, military officers, and members of Congress described their expectations of it in strikingly similar terms, and a few said that they could write it in advance: military progress, a political stalemate among Iraqis, more time needed.'
More:
'The media have largely followed the Administration's myopic approach to the war, and there is likely to be intense coverage of the congressional testimony. But the inadequacy of the surge is already clear, if one honestly assesses the daily lives of Iraqis. Though the streets of Baghdad are marginally less lethal than they were during 2006, sixty thousand Iraqis a month continue to leave their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration, joining the two million who have become refugees and the two million others displaced inside Iraq. The militias, which have become less conspicuous as they wait out the surge, are nevertheless growing in strength, as they extend their control over neighborhoods like Ahmed's. In the backstreets, the local markets, the university classrooms, and other realms beyond the reach of American observers or American troops, there is no rule of law, only the rule of the gun. The lives of most Iraqis are dominated by a complex array of militias and criminal gangs that are ruthlessly competing with one another, and whose motives for killing are more often economic or personal than religious or ideological. A recent report by the International Crisis Group urged the American and British governments to acknowledge that their "so-called Iraqi partners, far from building a new state, are tirelessly working to tear it down."'
--
Just glanced at the story on Clausewitz I wrote when I first got to the Post:
[Col. Harry] Summers experienced a famous moment of Clausewitzian irony. In 1975, on a negotiating mission to Hanoi, he said to a North Vietnamese colonel, "You know you never defeated us on the battlefield."
"That may be so," the other colonel said. "But it is also irrelevant."
--
Let's throw the book at 'em:
"Military power is essential to our security, but if the only tool is a hammer, pretty soon every problem looks like a nail. We must use all the tools of U.S. power -- including foreign aid, educational assistance and vigorous public diplomacy that emphasizes scholarship, libraries and exchange programs -- to shape a Middle East and a Muslim world that are less hostile to our interests and values."
--
Boodler blogging:
Here's yellojkt on frisky geezers.
And bc on football.
--
Columnist Steve Outing responds to A-blog ankle-biting.
Frisky Geezers
[My article in today's Outlook section. I'll annotate tomorrow if possible (I also plan to go to the big shindig on the Hill).]
When Larry Craig was accused of playing footsie in a men's room, the ensuing political foofaraw tended to overshadow the interesting fact that the senator is 62 years old. That's not ancient, to be sure. But I've always thought that cruising the stalls of an airport loo was appropriate behavior only for a much younger man.
Were I to interview Craig, I would ask: Whatever happened to slowing down, sagging into a favorite chair every night and reading Popular Mechanics? Or woodworking in the basement? Patrolling the lawn for crab grass? Daydreaming about cutting the kids out of the will? And the rest of the traditional, older-guy program generally known as "puttering around"?
All that is gone, apparently. There are no old people anymore. The word "senior" is in disfavor; the folks at AARP often use the term "grown-up" to refer to our most tenured citizens. (And it's not the American Association of Retired Persons anymore, either: The group decided that because most of its members weren't retired, it should be just AARP, standing for nothing at all.)
This sociological revolution has given rise to a new American icon: the frisky geezer. The frisky geezer is someone who never got the memo to stick to golf from here on out. Americans today live not only longer, but with more fire in the belly. Disability rates for people over 65 go down by more than 2 percent a year, according to a long-term national survey published in 2006. The culture of being older has fundamentally changed, says Robert Butler, president of the International Longevity Center-USA and a professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "The atmosphere has become more robust in favor of older people remaining part of the human race," says Butler, who is 80 and works 60 hours a week. "They're no longer expected to go to the rocking chair and give up."
I'd nominate Rupert Murdoch as this summer's frisky geezer extraordinaire. He's 76, his media empire bestrides multiple continents, he can phone in headlines to a New York tabloid or greenlight a movie deal at 20th Century Fox -- but it's not enough. No. He must own the Wall Street Journal. You get a sense that it's not just a business deal, it's self-actualization.
Even Murdoch is a pup compared with legendary FG Sumner Redstone, a media tycoon who, at 84, has a feisty feud going with his daughter over control of his companies ("I gave to my children their stock; and it is I, with little or no contribution on their part, who built these great media empires," he wrote to Forbes magazine in July).
The presidential race is a geezer-fest. John McCain, who recently turned 71, would be the oldest person to capture the Oval Office. Fred Thompson, never a man in a rush, has finally gotten around to running for president -- at age 65. And then there's peppy Chris Dodd, a mere lad of 63, who has not only found presidential ambition late in life but has also discovered, for the first time, the joys of being a parent (he has two young children and jokes that he's the first presidential candidate to get mail from AARP and a diaper service).
The proliferation of frisky geezers is a promising development for all of us who intend to become geezers and remain frisky, though the phenomenon is not without complications. Will geezers suck up all our nation's fiscal resources? Will they occupy all the best socioeconomic niches (having already nabbed the best tee times)?
Steve Slon, who is 55 and the editor of AARP: The Magazine, says that we are seeing the demise of the restrictive rules about "acting your age." "We continue to view ourselves as young," he says, speaking for the boomer generation.
More and more people over 50 are adopting kids, so put down "parenting" as a major grown-up-citizen activity.
"We get so many pitches about people over 60 riding their bikes across the country, or running in 100-mile marathons, we have to tell them, 'Great, but this is not really news anymore,' " says Margaret Guroff, health editor of the AARP magazine.
Much of the revolution takes place out of sight. Recently we all read the front-page story about older people having sex like bunnies. According to the University of Chicago study, 53 percent of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 remain sexually active, along with 26 percent between the ages of 75 and 85, despite the fact that 100 percent of their kids and grandkids would rather not picture it. Now we understand that special twinkle in Grandpa's eye when he looks at Grandma and says, "I'll show you an Early Bird Special you'll never forget."
It's hard to know how those sex stats compare to an earlier era. Certainly this can't be an entirely new phenomenon; I'm reminded by Washington Post literary critic Michael Dirda that Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell and Pablo Picasso were all legendarily priapic far into their old age. The last time University of Chicago researchers studied Americans' sexual behavior, they didn't look at anyone older than 59. Until now we've had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding geezer sex.
The lives of older folks have been off the books in another way: Millions of them do volunteer work, but economists don't count that as part of the nation's gross domestic product.
The friskiness of the elderly has a trickle-down effect. Senior citizens are the only grown-ups left. Almost everyone between the ages of 40 and 55 is in a state of arrested adolescence (is there a CEO or presidential candidate in America who isn't in a garage band?). To judge from stories in major news magazines, all 25-year-olds today live with their parents.
Teenagers, meanwhile, generally have the street savvy of hamsters.
Boomers always get a lot of ink, as do teens and twixters and Gen-Xers and all the other cohorts that are viewed by advertisers as demographically desirable. We're youth-obsessed to the point where the elderly have nearly disappeared from popular culture. Go to the racks at the checkout stand: You see 40-year-old women buying magazines whose editors want to reach 30-year-old women by running photos of women who appear to be about 22 but are actually 17.
But the old lions are still prowling. Who is still the best investor in the nation? Warren Buffett. Just turned lucky 77.
Who's the biggest stud in Hollywood? It ain't Tom Cruise: I'm guessing it's Clint Eastwood, born a few months before Buffett.
Who still has more clout than any other TV interviewer? Probably Barbara Walters, who is believed to be turning 78 in a few weeks , but Larry King, 73, might argue otherwise.
Who has the biggest audience (22 million listeners) of any radio personality? Broadcasts three times a day? Yes, that would be Paul Harvey, now in his 90th year on the planet.
Best American novelist still regularly pounding out great fiction? Might be Philip Roth, who is 74 and still winning the biggest prizes. Or is it Cormac McCarthy at 74? No: It has to be the unstoppable Joyce Carol Oates, who published her one-millionth novel, "The Gravedigger's Daughter," at age 69.
On the stage? Maybe Sir Ian McKellen, playing King Lear and looking buff at 68. ("Mr. McKellen makes for a vigorous Lear," says a recent review in the New York Times. "He stands tall and slim, has strong legs, visible when he drops his pants in Act IV.")
Shouldn't we mention 80-year-old Joe Paterno? Still coaching football at Penn State, where he started in the Truman administration.
Let's not forget Hugh Hefner. He has made the long journey from thinking-man's swinger and magazine editor to vapid, jammies-wearing self-parody. But three girlfriends! That's seriously frisky. If not, perhaps, entirely grown-up.
My off-the-cuff list skews male. That might be a generational thing, an echo of the days of rigid patriarchies and the feminine mystique. Perhaps women, after a certain age, are less inclined to make spectacles of themselves. But it's all fluid. The next president could be a woman, inciting an outbreak of frisky geezerettes.
I asked Butler, the longevity expert, what it's like to be 80.
"The most striking difference is the tendency to be aware of the past, whereas if you're 40, you're more likely to be thinking about what you're going to do next," he said. "But I still do. I think a lot about what I'm going to do next."
Which is?
"I have a book coming out -- a big book -- 'The Longevity Revolution,' in January," he reports. And after that? Another book, he hopes. Why not? His blood pressure is perfect. Cholesterol, 130.
"So far, so good," he says.
Annus Mirabilis!
Am huge today. Am a titanic wordsmithing language person. This is the biggest thing that's happened to me since I was 9 years old and got Honorable Mention in the sack race.
--
If you don't hear from me for a while it's because I'm going to the library to read about the Renaissance. That was in Europe, right? Lots of paintings and "frescoes" with nekkid ladies and cupids?
First idea for new job: The Space Age will be 50 years old (if you date the origin to the launching of this little doodad) on Oct. 4 and I probably ought to write some ponderous thumbsucker of a story, don' t you think?? It's been at least a couple of years since I did a Whither Space story.
(By the way, I saw the new documentary on the Apollo program, "In the Shadow of the Moon," and it's boffo. Two tentacles up as we say on my home planet, Squiddageusse. Amazing archival footage and wonderfully winning narration/interviews by 10 surviving moon men. My review will run next week in Style.)
--Joel Achenbach
Rock Stars Die Younger??? Plus: Worst Column Ever!
This just in: Rock stars die younger!
"An analysis of mortality rates among 1,064 musicians lends support to the long-held impression that rock stars have below- average life expectancies, especially within the first five years of becoming famous, the scientists said."
I know, I know, it's a shocker. You're reeling and rocking from this shattering bulletin. You would think that the rocker lifestyle (hoovering powdered substances piled into small hills on mirrors; randomly snogging runaways; Jack Daniels-and-mango smoothies for breakfast; constantly flying in small planes out of small midwestern towns like Mason City, Iowa) would actually extend the average life span.
I just don't believe the study. Two words of refutation are all we need here: Keith Richards. Going strong! Sure, he's cadaverous and looks like Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice, but he's still rockin'!
(This news makes us wonder what other bombshell is poised to drop. Iraq war not going swimmingly?? Who knows, we might find out that professional athletes are more likely than normal people to take performance enhancing drugs. Can we get some scientists on that??)
--
The Worst Column Ever
I nearly hurled when I read this stupid column in Editor & Publisher saying that reporters should be less objective and more opinionated. I don't just disagree: I spit on the fool who extruded this detestable putrescence.
The brain-dead columnist, Steve Outing, writes:
'A recent example was a story of NASA scientists recalculating some average-temperature figures that appeared to indicate that "Dust Bowl" year 1934 was the hottest year on record, not 1998, as was believed. Newspapers dutifully reported on the "controversy" as global warming skeptics seized on the erred statistic to support their notion that it's all a hoax, as in this New York Times report, [sadly it's already archived but I'll try to dig it out -- Joel] even though scientists involved explained that it was inconsequential in terms of the larger global temperature trend, "nudging it by an insignificant thousandth of a degree....The problem with that kind of coverage is that it doesn't permit journalists to find the truth in an issue, like global warming.'
His one example is a story by Andrew Revkin. Yes, the very same Andrew Revkin who has written many influential articles in the Times warning of the perils of global warming. Did Revkin somehow transmogrify into a dupe who listens to flat-earthers?
No: His latest article could not be more immaculately reported and written. It has precisely the right tone. It takes the new data and places it into perspective. The recalculated temperatures do not alter the reality of anthropogenic climate change. No sane person could read this article as bending over backwards to accomodate the deniers.
There's a broader issue here, which is whether we should abandon "objective journalism." I vote no on that. And I don't think that you say, "Some issues are so important you can't be objective." That's mushy thinking. Readers appreciate journalism that begins with a question rather than an answer. We all benefit from independent thinking and a search for truth. If that search results in a powerful statement of fact that motivates people to make a change, that's all to the good. But you don't set out at the start with your conclusions firmed up.
[Update: Obviously your blogger had too much coffee. Invective intended satirically, ya dig. To make clear: I agree that "balance" is crazy if one side's view is scientific and the other side's is nutty. But being "objective" doesn't mean that. It often means you have to say, This is the most persuasive argument. But that's not advocacy journalism, that's just telling it like it is.
I concur with Kurosawaguy's comment in the boodle: The problem with "balanced and objective" reporting is that when you quote two experts with opposing views on evolutionary theory and they both have PhD's, you seem to create an equivalency of expertise. Many readers, even when told, will not grasp that the fact that the creationist has his PhD in electrical engineering and that he is the bishop of the Humina Humina Temple of the FSM makes his expert opinion on evolutionary biology worth exactly zero.]
Essentially the argument is that Climate Change is a special category in which journalists who normally do "objective journalism" should instead do "advocacy journalism." There are several fundamental problems with this. What exactly are we supposed to advocate? A gas tax? Carbon sequestration? Protests outside Exxon-Mobil headquarters? (Mr. Outing, to his credit -- now I hate myself for what I've written about the chap -- actually gives a decent answer: He says we should write about ways that people can lower their carbon footprint. But that's just consumer journalism that I doubt anyone would object to or find particularly controversial.)And why is Climate Change different from, for example, water pollution that spreads cholera and other diseases, or nitrogen runoff in the oceans, or loss of biodiversity due to habitat destruction, or overfishing that has obliterated certain fish species? The destruction of our ocean ecosystems is a huge issue that hasn't gotten enough attention.
Yeah, we don't need to quote insane people in a stupid attempt to create "balance." But if there's a riot going on in the blogosphere about tweaked temperature numbers (for example), there's nothing wrong with citing those opinions and putting them in perspective. That's not seeking balance; that's called truth-squadding a bogus claim.
Did I mention that I know I'm right.
Betting On America: The Blowback
[Before I forget: I may do a story on how 80 is the new 40. You know: Precocious geriatrics. Please send any and all thoughts.]
[Here's the transcript of today's Live Online discussion.]
My story, Bet on America, got quite a response, encompassing the full range of emotions from outrage to abomination to revulsion. Some hated it; others abhorred it. For every reader who found it stupid, ill-considered and puerile, there was a reader who found it intellectually slovenly and utterly beneath contempt. But whatever: Lots of eyeballs!
The comments directly appended to the story tended to skew heavily to the Left (as has been the case of the comments on the entire site for a while). The general tenor offered confirmation that a lot of folks have a dim view of the prospects of the United States. Hence I will conclude that my article was timely. [I strongly recommend going through life with the belief that all data points are affirmational.]
Several people echoed the sentiment by a certain "msolem," who wrote, ' What is the point of having to affirm this "We're #1" mentality? Are we in some sort of race? Perhaps a healthier perspective might be "We're all in this together" and, therefore, we should concern ourselves less about national status and instead think about our international citizenship and responsibilities.' I agree, and it's why I wrote that being powerful isn't the same as having a country that we can be proud of.
Kbertocci made the same point in the boodle:
"If this world is going to survive, at some point being number one is going to have to take a back seat to international cooperation and the understanding that we are all in this together."
In Blogworld:
Dean Baker says I've got China's economy all wrong:
'... it is ridiculous to imagine that a country whose manufacturing output exceeds the U.S. on a wide variety of measures, that produces more scientists and engineers each year than the United States, and has more cell phone and computer users than the United States is one-fifth the size. On a per capita basis China's economy is still less than one-fifth the size of the U.S. economy, but on an aggregate basis, it should pass the U.S. in a few years.'
[By the way, I should note that I was assisted in the China section of my article by John Pomfret, the Outlook editor, who spent years there as a foreign correspondent and has written a book about his experience, called Chinese Lessons.]
From today's chat, here was an exchange that I think was interesting and I didn't exactly knock it out of the park (fouled it off my foot):
Alexandria, Va.: You mentioned that "this doesn't mean that our national problems and deep-seated flaws will magically be cured." Is there one problem in your mind that, were we to persistently ignore it, would assist in an overall decline? My money's on education, though I suppose one could make the case for infrastructure (power grid, roadways, etc.).
Joel Achenbach: Gosh, I don't have a Top Ten list for what our problems are. I mentioned income inequality prominently because that's on my mind lately as I observe my own socioeconomic death spiral. But I guess I worry in general that we're creating a domestic culture that lacks a strong sense of community and common interest and generosity toward others. That's almost a spiritual thing. (At the risk of getting all Kumbaya-my-lord on you.)
Pondering this, I think I might add "greed." I think greed can drive people and corporations and even power-hungry officials to do terrible things. And maybe "megalomania." But I'd like to hear what others have to say on this.
From my email inbox:
L.G. writes: '...I would look at how Washington favors corporations over people, and the long-term consequences of that unstated policy. With the recent change in the bankruptcy law, an economy that is supported by the taking on of more and more debt, while good paying jobs leave this country and illegal immigrants are intentionally allowed in so as to lower wages for jobs that cannot be shipped overseas, we are about to see the return to this country of "the indentured servant." Am I overstating that? Only in the sense that there is no longer any legal status of "indentured servant". But from a practical standpoint, that is what's beginning to happen right now. And no, I'm not singling out Bush nor the Republicans either, as nearly all of Congress is complicit, as is the administration previous to Bush.'
Richard Keppler writes: '...we have trillions upon trillions of dollars of fixed costs like
social security and so on which cannot be met without massive
increases in taxes, defaulting on debt payments, or in some cases
massive currency devaluation. The medicare drug benefit will bankrupt
the country all by itself. Lets see your aircraft carrier battle
groups get us out of that one.'I've done well for myself lately - when Bush was installed by the
court I moved my savings in to Euro and Asian mutual funds which have
done very well, partly due to the collapsing dollar. I see no reason
to take them back now. Like capital, I am prepared to move wherever I
am treated best, and I promise to do so.'M.L. writes: "America will crumb [crumble?] from within, just like almost all other super powers did. The moral fabric of the country is gone, it is already slowly but surely going down hill."
Bill Pilot, a 91-year-old veteran, writes: 'There is no doubt that we are very powerful, but we have been kicked out of Viet Nam on our ass and we are not very successful at present in Iraq. The small countries have learned that they don't need to fight our aircraft carriers, our wonderful aircraft, and our nuclear weaponry. They are turning our own people against us by sending our boys back to us in flag draped coffins. They are forcing us to deplete our capital which we rebuild by borrowing from the world at 6% Interest rates. This rate will increase substantially if our bankers withhold their capital from us forcing us to sweeten the pot. God help us if one of them cashes in a half trillion dollars worth of the bonds that they hold.'
Windows piracy tool goes haywire
Personal Computer World Aug 28 2007 4:21PM GMT...
Aruba Networks 4Q Loss Widens
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Photon-Powered PCs Proposed
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Ex-ECMA chief expects Open XML approval by March
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Sensitive Data On Stolen State Computer
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Mobile PC Users Take More Risks Than Desktop Users, Survey Says
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Roll up, roll up?.
Digital cameras and clever software have liberated millions of people, conned for generations by indifferent holiday snap processing into believing that they always cropped off the feet and tops of the heads of their loved ones. Now everyone can make...
Laptop Stolen With State Tax Data For 106,000 Residents
State officials said a computer laptop with the names and Social Security numbers of more than 100,000 Connecticut taxpayers has been stolen...
R.H. Donnelley Expands Deal With Yahoo
The computer desk and monitor that sit before me are propped up by a total of seven phonebooks. ; I sometimes use an eighth for actual reference purposes. ; But given that ratio, it seems like a wise move on the part of R.H. Donnelly, ?a leading...
Computer simulation shows how evolution may have speeded up
Is heading straight for a goal the quickest way there? If the name of the game is evolution, suggests new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the pace might speed up if the goals themselves change continuously. Nadav Kashtan, Elad Noor and...
The More Things Change ...
I'll be taping a bloggingheads "diavlog" (loathe that word!) with Bob Wright later today. Not sure what we'll talk about, but I'm guessing it will be a combination of big-think bloviation and digressional cleverisms. A dash of solipsism. A dose of cant. Some grandiosity crashing on the shoals of trivia. Eschatology frothed and poofed with the usual prattle. And then at some point we can link to it.
I think Bob will want to talk about Iraq. Can I just say I think despair might be a good option?
Here's Gerson's best spin on it:
"Grass-roots progress, the argument goes, will eventually produce more responsible, pragmatic political leaders -- Sunnis who oppose al-Qaeda and Shiites who fight Iranian influence -- as well as more capable and professional Iraqi military forces. And this would allow America to provide the same level of security with fewer and fewer troops."
Which reminds me of the Dave Barry line: And someday sheep will pilot the Concorde. [Dated, but still makes the point.]
Not that I'm cynical. I'm hopeful! In fact that may be topic 2 with Bob, whether it makes sense to be hopeful about the prospects of our nation, as I argued here recently so cogently. Many emails said, in essence, "You're insane."
Environmental optimism is the subject of a Gregg Easterbrook book review in the journal Democracy (free but pain-in-the-arse registration required):
Traditional environmentalists are fundamentally wrong, the authors contended, to think that "the environment" is a rainforest or wildlife preserve, while the places people live are artificial, or that men and women should bear shame about reengineering the planet. A pristine fjord isn't "good" while a streetcorner in Brooklyn is "bad," they reasoned: Both are different aspects of the same biosphere. Human alteration of nature is nothing to be squeamish about, since nature continuously alters itself, whether we act or not. "Fragile environment" is a nonsense phrase-nature has survived ice ages and comet strikes. The living world is not fragile; it's a green fortress.
The conundrum, as always, is that it may be adaptive to be pessimistic even when the hard data would argue for a more optimistic assessment. The serene don't survive. The complacent get eaten alive.
More optimism: This Ray Tallis piece is interesting, via Arts & Letters Daily:
The most often repeated claim is that we are on the verge of technological breakthroughs - in genetic engineering, in pharmacotherapy and in the replacement of biological tissues (either by cultured tissues or by electronic prostheses) - which will dramatically transform our sense of what we are and will thereby threaten our humanity. A little bit of history may be all that is necessary to pour cooling water on fevered imaginations. In 1960, leading computer scientists, headed by the mighty Marvin Minsky, predicted that by 1990 we would have developed computers so smart that they would not even treat us with the respect due to household pets. Our status would be consequently diminished. Anyone seen any of those? Smart drugs that would transform our consciousness have been expected for 50 years, but nothing yet has matched the impact of alcohol, peyote, cocaine, opiates, or amphetamines, which have been round a rather long time.
It was expected that advances in the understanding of the neurochemistry of dementia in the 1970s would permit us not only to restore cognitive function in people with Alzheimer's disease, but also to artificially boost the intelligence of people without brain illness. The results have been a little disappointing, as the recent judgement by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence that anti-dementia drugs have only modest benefits reminds us. Gene therapy that was going to deliver so much in the 1980s is still waiting to deliver.
So don't hold your breath; you'll die of anoxia.
--
Maybe nature didn't get the memo. Inbox has nature-in-peril stories, starting with the hemlock trees:
'Entomologists at Virginia Tech are now studying a beetle from Japan that may be a natural predator of Adelges tsugae, or hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Scientists hope the Japanese beetle will curb the rapid spread of the HWA without damaging forest ecosystems.'
Gray whale also still in trouble:
"Despite our best efforts," Palumbi said, "these genetic results suggest gray whales have not fully recovered from whaling. They might be telling us that whales now face a new threat - from changes to the oceans that are limiting their recovery."
"Decades ago, whales were the first creatures to tell us that we were overfishing the oceans," Palumbi concluded. "Maybe now they trying to tell us the oceans are in deeper trouble."
--
Japanese prime minister quits:
Support for the political blue-blood was also damaged by his concentration on ideological issues - such as patriotism and constitutional reform - at a time when many Japanese are concerned over the widening gap between rich and poor and other bread-and-butter worries.
High-Stakes Patent Battle Banks on New Litigation Tool
Patent litigation probably couldn't get more high stakes than a Delaware lawsuit currently unfolding against Intel. Transmeta has accused the Silicon Valley chip giant of infringing on 10 patents in its hugely successful Pentium products. Yet rather than battle it out in court, Intel is trying to put the brakes on the proceedings by using a relatively new government process -- inter partes re-examination -- that's becoming an increasingly popular way for accused infringers to get patents invalidated.
High-Stakes Patent Battle Banks on New Litigation Tool
Patent litigation probably couldn't get more high stakes than a Delaware lawsuit currently unfolding against Intel. Transmeta has accused the Silicon Valley chip giant of infringing on 10 patents in its hugely successful Pentium products. Yet rather than battle it out in court, Intel is trying to put the brakes on the proceedings by using a relatively new government process -- inter partes re-examination -- that's becoming an increasingly popular way for accused infringers to get patents invalidated.
3rd Circuit Judges Grill DOJ Attorney in CBS 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Case
The infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl in which singer Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed should not have resulted in fines against CBS because the network had taken precautions to prevent such an incident, a lawyer for the network told the 3rd Circuit on Tuesday. The lawyer urged the panel to overturn a $550,000 fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, arguing the agency unfairly held the network responsible for the conduct of Jackson and singer Justin Timberlake.
3rd Circuit Judges Grill DOJ Attorney in CBS 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Case
The infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl in which singer Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed should not have resulted in fines against CBS because the network had taken precautions to prevent such an incident, a lawyer for the network told the 3rd Circuit on Tuesday. The lawyer urged the panel to overturn a $550,000 fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, arguing the agency unfairly held the network responsible for the conduct of Jackson and singer Justin Timberlake.
Exxon Valdez Case Brings $2.5B Damages Fight to Supreme Court
The Exxon Valdez ran aground on an Alaskan reef nearly 20 years ago, but a related case has just reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Exxon Mobil is asking the high court to examine the record $2.5 billion punitive damages award -- reduced from $5 billion by the 9th Circuit -- through the lens of general maritime law, which is adding an interesting wrinkle. And some experts say the case could also reveal the positions of the Court's newest justices on punitive award limits.
Judge Denies $4.2M in Bonuses for Northwest Bankruptcy Lawyers
Bankruptcy lawyers for Northwest Airlines Corp. were denied $4.2 million in end-of-case bonuses Tuesday, with a judge saying their average rates of about $500 an hour had already provided adequate compensation. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper said that for the attorneys to deserve a so-called fee enhancement, their work should have a remarkable result that couldn't be expected from lawyers being paid their regular fees.
Former Partner Sues Firm, Partner for Alleged Groping at Party
Jackson & Campbell's Robert Rider Jr., a nonequity partner, concedes that he tapped then-fellow nonequity partner Elisa Eisenberg on the backside at a party, according to court papers. But in her civil suit, Eisenberg says an intoxicated Rider forcefully groped her and that the firm created a hostile work environment by refusing to fire Rider, which ultimately led to Eisenberg's resignation. She is seeking at least $1 million in compensatory damages and at least $3 million in punitive damages.
Ex-CEO of Comverse Technologies Loses Bid to Block Forfeiture of Citigroup Assets
Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, the former CEO of Comverse Technologies who fled to southern Africa to avoid charges stemming from an alleged stock option backdating scheme, cannot contest the government's civil forfeiture proceedings against two of his bank accounts, a federal judge has ruled. The judge granted the prosecution's motion for summary judgment on its fugitive disentitlement doctrine claim, thereby precluding Alexander from contesting its action against his two Citigroup Smith Barney accounts.
Fearful Courthouse Workers Wonder if Mold Infestation Led to Judge's Death
Two studies at Miami's historic David W. Dyer courthouse reveal significant mold and air safety issues and suggest that parts of the building are beyond repair. The studies were commissioned after former Magistrate Judge Ted Klein died last year of a mysterious respiratory illness, and other magistrate judges raised concerns about the building. Courthouse personnel have complained of double pneumonia, nasal bleeding and allergies. The situation is so serious, some clerks are being allowed to work at home.
Judges From Four Groups to Sue N.Y. State for Pay Hike
Members of four New York state judges' associations will file suit today in Manhattan Supreme Court to force the governor and the Legislature to give judges a pay raise. The long-discussed suit is being filed now because the judges have become fed up with the apparent inability of lawmakers to agree to convene in Albany and to take up the judicial pay increase bill they have had before them all year, Staten Island Civil Court Judge Philip S. Straniere said Tuesday. The judges last had a pay raise in 1999.
N.J. Judge Faces Discipline for Disparaging Remark on the Bench
Judge Frank Leanza admitted during a disciplinary hearing last week he shouldn't have labeled a landlord's excuses for ignoring summonses "a lot of bullshit" but says he was just overly frustrated with the man he characterized as a "slumlord" who for years ignored fines and orders to fix his apartment buildings. Leanza's lawyer said that even a light amount of discipline would be untoward, given the landlord's alleged disregard for the process of law and manipulation of the legal system.
Federal Judge Tosses Out NYC Calorie Posting Rule for Restaurants
A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a New York City rule that required fast-food restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus, but he suggested that expanding the rule to include more restaurants could make it legal. Businesses had claimed that their First Amendment free speech rights were violated by the rule, described as the first of its kind in the United States, but the judge said he reached his decision that the rule conflicted with federal law without needing to address those claims.
Pa. Supreme Court Chief Justice to Step Down From Bench
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy has told his colleagues he will step down from the bench by year's end, according to sources. After the General Assembly voted to give legislators and judges a pay raise in 2005, Cappy became a lightning rod for voter anger because of his role in that legislation and his public support for the raise. Still, Cappy's decision to resign has caught many in the legal community by surprise.
Reed Smith Continues Paris Growth With Bird & Bird Hires
Reed Smith has snared life sciences co-head Paule Drouault-Gardrat and a two-lawyer team from the Paris arm of Bird & Bird. The appointment of Drouault-Gardrat, who will join Reed Smith as a partner, marks the latest evidence of the firm's concerted drive to regain the initiative in the French capital after the office was hit in March by a three-partner raid by shipping firm Thomas Cooper & Stibbard.
Defendant in KPMG Investigation Pleads Guilty
David Makov, one of the five remaining defendants in the government's investigation of allegedly illegal tax shelters offered by accounting firm KPMG, pleaded guilty Monday in Manhattan federal court. Makov, an investment adviser, admitted to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the United States Treasury, evade taxes and file false tax returns. He faces a maximum five years in prison when he is sentenced in June of next year.
Real Estate Deals Are Feeling the Credit Pinch
With the pop of the housing bubble and the implosion of the subprime mortgage market, lawyers representing homebuilders were already seeing a slowdown in transactions. But, now, with the credit crunch on top of that, high-end commercial real estate deals -- the cash cow for big-firm real estate groups -- just plain aren't going forward. "It caught everyone off guard -- even though everyone was saying, 'It's coming, it's coming.' It was like an earthquake," said DLA Piper real estate partner Stephen Cowan.
Defendant in KPMG Investigation Pleads Guilty
David Makov, one of the five remaining defendants in the government's investigation of allegedly illegal tax shelters offered by accounting firm KPMG, pleaded guilty Monday in Manhattan federal court. Makov, an investment adviser, admitted to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the United States Treasury, evade taxes and file false tax returns. He faces a maximum five years in prison when he is sentenced in June of next year.
Inside The Living Body Facts: Infants and Toddlers
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Chip makers raise stakes in servers
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The Graying of the Web
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You want machines second-guessing you?
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Keep an eye on: iPhone sales
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First week of school gets good reviews
--> NORTH TONAWANDA ? Eleven district administrators, mostly principals, gave the city School Board rave reviews about the first week of school including the addition of 150 new computers t...
New Diary Software Enables Road Warriors To Keep In Touch Via Smartphone
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Scientists use computer 'agents' to explain primate behaviour
NetIndia123.com Sep 12 2007 8:34AM GMT...
Drop-off scheduled for hazardous waste
LITTLE VALLEY ? Cattaraugus County residents who wish to dispose of household hazardous waste and old computers can register through Sept. 19 for a free drop-off event that will be held Sept. 29 in the county?s Department of Public Works facility...
Mobile Office Extension (Moe) Offers New Website With Expanded Product Line
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Public libraries are sole source of online employment and education information for millions of Amer
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Search Rules Advertising As Media Diversifies
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Google Bids Health Exec Adieu
Adam Bosworth , a noted computer programmer who joined Google in 2004 to run the company's Health project, has left the company. A Google spokesperson said: "Adam is a great talent and was instrumental in starting Google Health. He is now on vacation...
Google Bids Health Exec Adieu
Adam Bosworth , a noted computer programmer who joined Google in 2004 to run the company's Health project, has left the company. A Google spokesperson said: "Adam is a great talent and was instrumental in starting Google Health. He is now on vacation...
What?s your ?status??
This girl at the gym crushes on a guy who lifts each morning. She?s (let?s call her Cathy for Chatty Cathy) quite friendly and told me me this story the other day. It goes something like this: After not seeing ?Todd? for a couple weeks, she...
What?s your ?status??
This girl at the gym crushes on a guy who lifts each morning. She?s (let?s call her Cathy for Chatty Cathy) quite friendly and told me me this story the other day. It goes something like this: After not seeing ?Todd? for a couple weeks, she...
Entry Level Field Service PC Technician- Jump start your career
Looking for an exciting career in the computer and technology industry? We have one! First Level Technology LLC (FLT) www.firstleveltechnology, has immediate openings for full time entry level technicians residing in the Kansas City area. Location:...
Entry Level Field Service PC Technician- Jump start your career
Looking for an exciting career in the computer and technology industry? We have one! First Level Technology LLC (FLT) www.firstleveltechnology, has immediate openings for full time entry level technicians residing in the Kansas City area. Location:...
Keyloggers proposed to fight terrorism in cybercafes
( InfoWorld ) - An organization in Mumbai, India has proposed that police use key-logging software at cybercafés to keep track of communications between terrorists. Public computers at cybercafes offer terrorists the anonymity they require, said...
Keyloggers proposed to fight terrorism in cybercafes
( InfoWorld ) - An organization in Mumbai, India has proposed that police use key-logging software at cybercafés to keep track of communications between terrorists. Public computers at cybercafes offer terrorists the anonymity they require, said...
Hacker / security expert charged with massive credit card theft
He turned over a new leaf, and turned it back again: A man previously convinced of hacking hundreds of military and government computers has been busted again, this time for massive credit-card theft. In between he became -- what else? -- a well-known...
Hacker / security expert charged with massive credit card theft
He turned over a new leaf, and turned it back again: A man previously convinced of hacking hundreds of military and government computers has been busted again, this time for massive credit-card theft. In between he became -- what else? -- a well-known...
Official: 'Massive' Damage to China From Hacking
BEIJING, Sept. 12 -- A senior Chinese official said foreign intelligence agencies have caused "massive and shocking" damage to China by hacking into computers to ferret out political, military and scientific secrets....
Left-Brain, Right Brain Cont'd
More details on the craptacularity of that study: Hi Jonah, I'm a real-life neuroscientist from large university in Michigan and I liked the article you wrote on the recent study on why conservatives are cognitive defectives. I just read the original...
Official: 'Massive' Damage to China From Hacking
BEIJING, Sept. 12 -- A senior Chinese official said foreign intelligence agencies have caused "massive and shocking" damage to China by hacking into computers to ferret out political, military and scientific secrets....
Spammers target antispam sites
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Is getting a huntling license online worthwhile?
Is buying a hunting license online as difficult as shooting a flushing pheasant? Depends on what kind of shot you are, and how savvy you are with computers...
Two Still Cameras Are Made With Uploading Videos in Mind
The Exilim EX-S880 and EX-Z77 shoot YouTube-compatible videos that can be uploaded quickly, without even pausing to load them onto your computer?s hard drive...
U.S. Government Computer Hardening Rules
Security should improve for Federal government computers as a result of some new guidelines...
Us Political - Sponsored Link
Ad - Save time & money every time you shop online: DealTime helps you find the best prices on everything from Computers & Electronics to Jewelry, Toys & more...
Optimizing chip manufacturing at MIT
According to MIT researchers, computer chips used inside high-speed communication devices have become so small that tiny variations that appear during chip fabrication can make a big difference in performance.' So they've developed a model to predict...
Crime And - Sponsored Link
Ad - Save time & money every time you shop online: DealTime helps you find the best prices on everything from Computers & Electronics to Jewelry, Toys & more...
Cracking open Excel spreadsheets
Q My desktop computer runs Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition - which includes Microsoft Works Spreadsheet - but I cannot open Excel spreadsheets. How can I open them?...
Intel Integrated Graphics Receive a Performance Boost
- New drivers to squeeze a few more frames per second There is finally good news for those unlucky computer users that decided to save a few dollars and make do with the integrated graphics solution from Intel's chipsets. Low end graphics as the...
Up Front
John Hodgman, best known for his appearances on ?The Daily Show? and in those ubiquitous Apple Computer ads, is also the Book Review?s comics critic...
Vandals strike Lakewood Playhouse
It seems there is another kind of mystery playing out at the Lakewood Playhouse, which is putting on Agatha Christie's "The Hollow." Sometime after Saturday night's performance, someone broke into the theater and found the office in shambles,...
Sorry, Sean Michael
Among our computer-related glitches in this morning's paper was a mix up in the back-to-school photos on the Show&Tell page, B3. A duplicate of one of the photos appeared in the space where Larchmont Elementary kindergartener Sean Michael Chamberlin's...
Name: SyroBro
