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October 29, 2004
Whoops!
Reporter saw insurgents loot Qaqaa arms depot
Posted by Andrew at 09:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Election thoughts:
With all the excitement of the upcoming Presidential Election (I’m endorsing Kerry, for what it’s worth. If you need me to explain why, watch the new bin Laden video and ask “why’s he still alive?”), I just got around to taking a look at the State Ballot propositions. To gather my thoughts on them, I’ve written a write up on them each. You may find them interesting or informative. You’ll probably all be surprised at where I find myself on Proposition 72. Anyway, start here and work your way down...
Posted by Andrew at 09:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election thoughts: prop 60.
Proposition 60 is designed to keep Proposition 62 from coming into effect even if it passes. In the event both measures pass, the one with the highest vote total wins.
Just for consistency, I’m voting for both. No, seriously...
Posted by Andrew at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election thoughts: prop. 60A
This prop. would mandate that all money earned by selling off state property would be used to pay off bonds.
This prop. was designed to give voters one more reason to vote against prop. 62. While I like the idea, I hate the thought that our Legislature would have its hands tied by it in case of emergency. I’ll vote against-- and hope the Legislature does this on its own...
Posted by Andrew at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election thoughts: props 61, 63.
Proposition 61 will authorize the state to put forth a bond measure to fund children’s hospitals.
Prop 63 adds a 1% tax incomes over US$1,000,000.
I’d probably be in favor of both of these things, were our state solvent. Since it isn’t, I don’t want to commit us to new spending. While Prop. 63 is a bit better in that it specifies where the money is coming from (hear that, George? Tax, _then_ spend! Not the other way around!), it solution may well cause a massive pullout of wealth from California. I don’t want to have to change the State Constitution yet again if things go badly. Let the Legislature handle this one...
Posted by Andrew at 09:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election thoughts: prop. 62
California has an interesting decision to make on this year’s ballot. Proposition 62 (the Voter Choice open primary act).
Under the existing system, the State holds elections in November, said elections being between candidates nominated by various parties. These candidates are chosen by political parties during state-conducted Primary Elections...
The system proposed by Prop 62 would change the primary by not letting parties to enter into it. Primaries would be completely “open” (to candidates who jump through certain hoops). The top two vote-getters in the primary would be the only ones onto the November ballot...
I’m not going to make arguments for or against this. I just want to look at what this does. Because as near as I can tell (writing this at the beginning of the article), the net effect will be 0...
Immagine that there are 5 candidates for Governor on the Primary ballot, 3 Up and 2 Down. The Candidates of the Up get 18%, 19%, 18%, while the Down candidates get 25% and 20% of the vote. This creates a situation in which the only candidates for General election are of the Down-- a situation that a majority of voters did not favor. This election would end up as something of a forgone conclusion-- whichever candidate is closest to the middle ends up winning by a landslide...
What happens in the next election is a Up Block emerging, dedicated to getting 1 of the 3 Ups off the ballot, for the “common good”. Or, quite possibly the Up voters get so upset by the way Down is taking the state that they pool their efforts around 1 Up candidate in the primary, ensuring that only she will be there for the state electors to vote for. Indeed, this is pretty much exactly what happened to Ross Perot in 1996, and will probably happen to Nadar this coming election...
Don’t take my word for it: just cast your mind back to the French Presidential Election of 2001. The French use a system to choose their president similar to the one described in Prop 62, (with a completely different parliamentary system on top of it. Really, it is a model of complication and oddness), and their presidential electoral system tends to favor 2 main parties...
Note that we are capable of having the same outcomes under both systems, though. We would still have a first-past-the-post, winner-take-all system, and in any system like that there is a tendency towards the mean...
One final thought on the implications of the change on a state-wide level: It may well make the Party system stronger, rather than weaker. If the second election, under the terms outlined above, consists of candidates chosen by the Up Party, this process would be less transparent than the one we have currently. Without making a judgment on the value of transparency, this is something that might be useful to bear in mind...
On the local level, the situation may be a bit different. It may well be the case that voters are voting for a party, in addition to a candidate. Specifically, voters should well know that a vote for (say) a Republican in the US Senate is a vote for Bill Frist as Senate Majority Leader. So a district may not care for an incumbent, but stick by that person as a way of maintaining their preferred party’s hold on legislative majorities (or to avoid eroding minorities even further). As (admittedly weak) evidence of this I offer Allan Keyes polling 1/3rd of the vote in his run for one of Illinois’ Senate Seat. Perhaps if radical incumbents were to run against moderate challengers, and electors were guaranteed that they were also casting a vote for the same party within legislatures, voters would take the chance...
On the other hand, this is what the primaries are ostensibly for, so this whole issue may well be a non-starter. In the end, I’ll probably end up voting for the measure. I don’t see how it can hurt, it will probably be a lot of smoke and noise over nothing...
Posted by Andrew at 09:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Prop 64
This act makes it harder to sue someone for unfair competition. Specifically, unless a claimant is the State Attorney General, a District Attorney, County Counsel, or a City Attorney; they’d have to prove that they had suffered from said unfair competition. Any moneys paid by a defendant as part of a losing claim would go to “the exclusive use by the Attorney General, the district attorney, the county counsel, and the city attorney for the enforcement of consumer protection laws”.
I have a fairly knee-jerk reaction against attempts at “tort reform”, so I thought I’d give this one a look, just to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake. Boy, am I glad I did, had I not, I wouldn’t have known how bad this measure would be...
The big, glaring problem with this act is that if a company (Say Microsoft) unfairly competes with me, and puts me out of business, I can’t get any money. None. Zero. The state gets to keep it. So, in effect, even citizens who have suffered damage have little-to-no-incentive to sue. Sounds good for Microsoft, bad for consumers...
Posted by Andrew at 09:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Prop 65
This one would change the way the state and local municipalities allocate/raise money. The state looses power to do so, while the local governments gain.
After reading this one a few times, I’m still not sure I understand it. But it’s about money, and it’s a change to the state constitution. Therefore I vote no...
Posted by Andrew at 09:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Prop 66
Proposition 66 has 2 (related) effects:
First, it would create an additional threshold for invoking “3-strikes”. A third violation, in order to be eligible for 3-strikes under this proposition would need to be a violent crime.
Second, it would mandate re-sentencing under the new rules for everyone currently sentenced under the new rules...
There is very likely a (national) constitutional issue involving the second part of this act. Although, I can’t imagine think of how a sentence might go _up_ under this act, so I don’t think too many of the possible complainants actually complaining...
The first part is interesting. I’ve never seen conclusive evidence that 3-strikes has had an effect on crime, (quite simply, crime started to drop _before_ we enacted it, and the economy took off right when crime started to drop) but it seems likely that it has had some positive impact. So I don’t want to ditch the program altogether...
On the other wrist, this program won’t. What it will do is stop forcing me to pay to imprison non-violent criminals. In fact, under rational Choice-theory, it gives criminals incentive to not hurt me during robberies. Of course, I don’t expect criminals to be rational, so there’s that...
I’ll vote for this one. Keep the violent criminals in jail, get the pot-smokers out...
Posted by Andrew at 09:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Prop 67
This would add a 3% tax on phone use to pay for emergency services.
Actually, this would add a 3% tax on _land line_ use, cell phones are exempted. Here we have another lock-in of taxes that would require a constitutional amendment to get rid of. To hell with it. Not voting for another one of these again...
Posted by Andrew at 09:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Props 68 & 70
Unless in-state Indian casinos re-negotiate their current deals with the State within 90 days, Californians would get new and bigger casinos, under Prop 68.
Under Prop. 70, all new deals with Indian Casinos-- and re-negotiated deals with said native Americans-- would tax those casinos as if they were California businesses.
I love these props. I really do. See, my ancestors came to this country recently. While reading Textbooks about how badly we screwed various tribes out of an entire continent (including paying 64 dollars the _wrong_ tribe for Manhattan), I always felt sad that I would never have the chance to be part of the grand American tradition of screwing over Native Americans. Now, with these 2 props, I can!
Dreck. The native American tribes are _sovereign nations_. As much as I would love to tax Canada or France, had we the cudgel to impose it on them with, it would be wrong to do so. Given the history the US has with Native Americans we owe them at least the dignity of no longer inflicting the same old wounds on them. I’m going to say this just once: we don’t “deserve” a “fair share” of Indian money...
Posted by Andrew at 09:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts Prop 69
This prop. would collect DNA from those accused of Crimes.
Perhaps if it were “convicted” of crimes, I’d give it further thought. But since this act pays no mind of the “assumption of innocence” that is foundational to American Law, I can’t vote for it...
Posted by Andrew at 09:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Prop 71
This act would allow the State to place a US$3,000,000,000 bond issue on the market, said bond to pay for Stem Cell research.
We’re broke. This bond will cost money. Ask again in a few years...
Posted by Andrew at 09:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts: Prop 72
Proposition 72, if passed, would create a state board of insurance, which would sell companies insurance, charging them a rate consistent with the number of employees a company has.
There is a right way to get universal insurance and a wrong way. This is a very, very wrong way. Wow, is this one bad...
Basically, it would kill off private medical insurance companies in favor of one large insurance board-- and mandate employers to pay for it all. This type reliance on state-run mega bureaucracy is exactly why communism failed. By mandating buy-in regardless of how well the program actually works, we’ll kill businesses in California...
To compound the folly of this idea, it is a change to the state Constitution, and would require another such amendment to get rid of it. Let’s not go there...
Posted by Andrew at 09:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I defer in this matter to the gentleman from the Philosophy department...
Suppose there is a valuable book, bought and sold back and forth between your ancestors and mine over the course of generations. Suppose we lose track of who actually owns the book, but that we have a box containing all bills of sale for the book over the years. Some of the papers are cryptic and difficult to read, but most are perfectly legible. It is clear that our only hope for determining the actual ownership of the book is to carefully reconstruct the book’s sales history. It may be yours, it may be mine, but we won’t really know until we read through all the papers. But driven by raw greed, one day I simply decide to take the book, ownership be damned. Suppose we later discover that the actual history of the sales is incomplete, and ownership cannot be conclusively determined.Did I steal the book?
I’m not sure. But I am sure that I would, under those circumstances, have shown myself to be a thief.
And I’m sure that you shouldn’t trust me around your books.
Posted by Andrew at 06:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
George Bush is a conservative, so don’t vote for him
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
Interestingly, the article only uses the word “conservative” three times-- once to talk about “neo-conservatives”, a second to talk about “conservative judges”, and only once to talk about Bush’s “conservative base”...
I welcome the day when “conservative” is a dirty word in American Politics...
(Via Prof. Lessig)
Posted by Andrew at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2004
Headlines that make me smile...
Posted by Andrew at 07:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Keeping options open...
MarryAnAmerican - Homepage - No good American will be left behind!
Posted by Andrew at 12:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 26, 2004
Oh for the sake of the gods!
So, my school makes us register for our new classes at certain-- assigned-- times. My timeslot is 6:30pm
2 November at 6:30pm. Which means just as the new election returns are starting to filter in, I’ll have to run over and register for class...
You’d have thought they wouldn’t have given this slot to a Poli-sci major...
Posted by Andrew at 04:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 25, 2004
Sing it, Brother...
will work for freedom: Some 300 Tons
And welcome to my Blogroll...
Posted by Andrew at 02:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 23, 2004
Heh.
Abu Aardvark: The Election Made Simple
Indeed...
Posted by Andrew at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 22, 2004
Why I’d vote for an untrained monkey before George W. Bush:
MSNBC - Avoiding attacking suspected terrorist mastermind
For those of you playing along at home, here’s a little time-line.
1) Zarqawi shows up in Northern Iraq with a group of Islamic Terrorists (Ansar al-Islam). Northern Iraq, BTW, was not in Saddam’s grasp. The US military was enforcing a no-fly-zone to keep the Kurdish people from being massacred again.
2) President Bush’s Cabinet makes the case that Saddam is bad, in part because he allows Zarqawi to base in Iraq.
3) America goes to war with Iraq.
4) America wins war in Iraq
5) America begins Occupation of Iraq
6) Zarqawi starts killing Americans in Iraq
7) Zarqawi formally teams up with al-Qaida.
Oops. Did I forget part 1.5 where Bush rejects plans to kill Zarquawi? Why would Bush do such a thing?
the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
Bush can’t be trusted to wage a war against terror...
Posted by Andrew at 12:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
2 minutes Hate
I had a lovely time tonight with the Campus Orwellians. Before the featured movie, they showed us This bit of propaganda. Very well done...
Posted by Andrew at 02:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
I don't, really
 | You preferred Kerry's statements 100% of the time Voting purely on the issues you should vote Kerry Who would you vote for if you voted on the issues? Find out now! |
Posted by Andrew at 01:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Master!
So, my good friend Dazed_and_Confucius has his masters degree. Congratulations!
Just one more step before you have to cut that hair and get a real job...
Posted by Andrew at 01:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 21, 2004
Posted without comment
The French vs. the Saudis - Who's worse? By David Plotz
Posted by Andrew at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
First the Knee, then the neck...
Top News Article | Reuters.com
Of course, like all evil geniuses, Castro is going to soon replace is human body with an evil-robot body.
Posted by Andrew at 12:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 20, 2004
I don't think this is even an issue
Wesley J. Smith on Organ Transplant on National Review Online
It seems to me (not being a medical professional) that it is easier to patch someone up than it is to rip an organ out of them, store it, and put it in someone else. If that is true, why on Earth would a medical professional (someone sworn to preserve Human life at all costs) decide that the afore-mentioned scenario is a good idea?
Posted by Andrew at 09:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Doing the Math
Set us set 1F as equal to the force projection of 1 WWI American infantryman (Doughboys, as they were known). I choose this as it is basically the last time the infantryman was (almost) the whole at the sharp end of the stick. Tanks were just coming on-line at the end of the war. Airplanes were used mainly as a source of reconnaissance, not war-fighting, even communication was done either face to face, or over easily-broken wire (radio sets hadn’t become small yet). Chemical warfare was in it’s infancy, and artillery was probably in its golden-age. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention machine guns (which were too heavy to be carried by each soldier) and barbed wire...
But all in all, the doughboys were as “basic” as a soldier can get in an industrialized society. As far as I understand things, Saddam was reduced to something very much like them when we invaded the second time (sans the chemical weapons). What we had was-- amazing...
Our troops are the best equipped, trained, and quite possibly lead troops in the world. We have bombs capable of hitting any target anywhere, within a few feet. Hell, we can choose any playload on those bombs, from pure kinetic energy to a city-busting nuclear weapon. We have airplanes capable of flying from Florida to Bosnia, dropping a bomb, and having its pilot in Disneyland latter that day. We have communications devices which allow anyone to talk to anyone anywhere at any time. We have guns that can shoot around corners. It would probably take 1 aircraft carrier and 1 division of army troops to demolish the armies of _all_ the combatant nations of WWI...
This is because of something called a “force multiplier”. All the advantages that a modern solider has over his Great-granddad multiply the amount of power a single soldier has. So, if 1F is a doughboy, a modern soldier is (say) 000F. Probably more...
This is the heart of the “transformed” military Rumsfeld was so keen to create pre-9/11. It’s not a bad idea: re-envision the military to factor in as many modern force multipliers as possible. It is many of these concepts that lead to our stunning victories in Iraq and Afghanistan...
The problem is that once the war ended and the occupation began, our force multipliers decrease dramatically. Efficiently slaughtering insurgents is a step _backwards_ for our us. So, what does multiply force in an occupation?
Communications, for one. Money helps (it usually does...) speaking the language of the people we’re occupying, probably other factors I’m not thinking of. Our soldiers today are probably 10F at occupation duty...
The problem is that we went in quite literally Without an Occupation plan, which is the source of many of our problems today. So we went in with a combat force which had few numbers but lots of combat capability. Unfortunately as soon as the shooting stopped (or at least slowed down a lot), we were left without enough boots on the ground. And our policies made it unlikely that we were going to get enough allies to commit enough troops to do the job properly...
Posted by Andrew at 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2004
Gmail.
Anyone want a Gmail invite? I’ve got 4 left. If you want one, send me an Email with:
Your current Email address (so I know where to send the invite!)
The personal name you wish Google to know you as.
The Surname you wish Google to know you as.
Unfortunate, Google really does need a name of some sort. Though if you’re like me, you’ll give them a fake one just because you can...
Posted by Andrew at 01:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 16, 2004
Jon Stewart
Lawrence Lessig- Stewart: not kidnapped yet
If you haven’t yet, Watch the video (Bit Torrent). Stewart asks Crossfire to please "stop hurting America"...
Beyond calling it "pro-wrestling", He doesn’t get into the crux of why the media-political theater is so harmful, though he does a bit in his book...
But to put it succinctly, the media prefers quoting opinion to finding fact. And shows like Crossfire exist only to give platform to opinion...
Posted by Andrew at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 15, 2004
Holy dirty tricks, Batman!
Posted by Andrew at 04:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Ungood
"They are holding us against our will," McClenny said. "We are now prisoners."McClenny told her mother her unit tried to deliver fuel to another base in Iraq Wednesday, but was sent back because the fuel had been contaminated with water. The platoon returned to its base, where it was told to take the fuel to another base, McClenny told her mother.
The platoon is normally escorted by armed Humvees and helicopters, but did not have that support Wednesday, McClenny told her mother.
The convoy trucks the platoon was driving had experienced problems in the past and were not being properly maintained, Hill said her daughter told her.
- Platoon defies orders in Iraq - The Clarion-Ledger
"Everyone has heard stories from officers at the front of how soldiers would readily risk their lives if it were necessary, but who would rebel when they saw themselves neglected. For example, a company was capable of going without food for many days when they saw the supplies could not get through because of a force majeur, but mutinied when one meal was skipped through neglect and bureaucracy etc."
-Antonio Gramsci
Posted by Andrew at 04:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 14, 2004
The Official Obituary
I just learned more about my grandfather by reading his obit than I did in the 25+ years I knew him...
(Names [xxx]’ed to preserve my own anonymity...)
[XXX], Tony Joseph - Of Lodi, passed away Saturday, October 9, 2004, in aLodi hospital, at the age of 86. Mr. [XXX] was born July 6, 1918 in SF, CA, to Joseph and Patrina [XXX]. Mr. [XXX] was a third-generation fisherman. He owned and operated his fishing vessel the "Ricky," fishing off the northern California Coast from SF's Fisherman's Wharf down to Morro Bay. He later worked at the SF shipyards as well as Bremington Shipyards in Washington State before retiring in 1986. Mr. [XXX] was a United States Army and WWII veteran. He enjoyed bowling, gardening, making handmade hammocks and scoop nets for his friends. He will be best remembered as a loving husband, father and grandfather. He will be greatly missed. He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Mary [XXX] of Lodi; son, Richard [XXX] and wife, Marcie of San Ramon; brother, Jim [XXX] and wife, Lenore of Lincoln, CA; two grandchildren, [XXX] [XXX] and Jessica [XXX] both of Sacramento; nieces, Marsha Valdez of Wallace; Donna Thomas of Lodi; and numerous other nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by son, Dan Ansaldi in 1999. A Graveside Service will be held Friday, October 15, 2004, 11:00 am at the Cherokee Memorial Park Cemetery. A Rosary will be said Thursday 7:00 pm at the Lodi Funeral Home. Visitation will be held Thursday 12:00 - 8:00 pm at the Lodi Funeral Home. A virtual register book may be signed at www.lodifuneralhome.com where memories may be shared.
Posted by Andrew at 09:22 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
October 12, 2004
Health Care
During Friday’s debate, Mr. Kerry made the comment that he will help American Business by creating a national healthcare plan. It was a point he made in passing, but one that deserves expansion...
Let’s take the case I know best: my own employer. Barnes and Noble is the largest book chain on Earth, with somewhere around 5000 stores spread throughout the United States. Anyone serving with them for a year or more is eligible to sign up for their benefits package. Decent Medical/dental for US$11/week.
I’m going to make some assumptions and show you where I’m going with them:
Assuming that Barnes and Noble picks up half the Medical/Dental (this is probably low)
Assume that the average store has an average of 60 employees
Assume that 1/3 of these have been around for over a year (this is probably low)
Assume that the average employee makes US$9/hr (this is way high)
So, if Barnes and Noble didn’t have to pay for healthcare, it would save US$220 per week per store. That’s enough to pay for 1 extra part time employee per store. John Kerry’s national health plan would have created 5000 jobs. Thank you John Kerry!
Shall I put that in different terms? If I don’t have to pay US$11 per week to my employer, I get to keep that. This means that John Kerry is putting an extra US$572 directly into my pocket. This is roughly 1 month’s worth of pay. Thank you John Kerry!
Or! Multipy that across all the stores: 20 people in each store times 5000 stores times US$11 is 1.1 million dollars worth of stimulus. Granted, not a huge amount, but keep in mind that it changes my subsistence level survival into something a bit more comfortable. What I am saying is: my co-workers and I are very likely to pump that money straight back into the economy...
Of course, if you want to see how this can really affect the economy, aply these same numbers to Costco, which has similar hiring practices...
Posted by Andrew at 12:58 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 11, 2004
Prohibiting the party
Election is no party for Prohibition candidate
(Via Ayn Clouter
Posted by Andrew at 09:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Speaking of the President
Click the link to the movie in the post by Mr. DeLong...
President Bush is not a good speaker. I’d heard that he used to be, but I’d never seen evidence of that before tonight...
I don’t know that the evidence quite supports the conclusion that the video-producer mentions. And he has obviously cherry-picked the stuff from the “today” section of the video...
Having said all that, I can’t imagine George Bush today sounding anything like the man from 10 years ago. There is obviously _something_ wrong with him...
Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: A Weblog: What's Happened to George W. Bush?
Posted by Andrew at 07:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wonderful!
mystica.cc : The Baptism of Coffee
I wonder if this is why the Later-Day Saint religion/sect don’t drink caffeinated beverages....
Posted by Andrew at 06:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2004
Doing what works
slacktivist: The man who planted trees
But what strikes me about Bob's work -- like the work of so many people throughout the long decades of the Cold War -- is the enduring patience and determination. Bob learned the languages. He helped to strengthen the civil society. He was planting trees, trees with roots deep and strong enough to break through concrete.Contrast that approach with the blundering impatience of the Bay of Pigs. Contrast the difference in outcomes. One worked. The other didn't. And yet the latter has become the model we're now told to embrace lest we be accused of being "objectively pro-Saddam" enemies of freedom.
Posted by Andrew at 07:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My grandfather.
I am precisely the wrong person to eulogize my Grandfather. Despite being named for him (the name I use on this blog is a pseudonym), I knew him but poorly...
This isn’t entirely my fault. He was a gruff man, and hard of hearing. This combination made it hard to get to know him. I know little of his history, not even if he was born in this country. It occurs to me that I don’t even know what year he was born. I do know that he fought for it, when the time came. And the government Dropped the bombto save his life. That life ended yesterday...
And so, little of his life that I know, it falls upon me to use this space to store the little of his life that I do know. The man could grow plants. What his secret was, I’ll never know, but the man had a green, green thumb. Gods, he would get oranges the size of a pair of my fists! Before he retired, he built (I believe) boats up in Seattle. Quite possibly for These guys. Before that, he fished in the SF bay.
He was married to my grandmother for less than a year, I am told, before they divorced. Something about her not washing or caring for his socks properly. She was pregnant at the time. I am unsure when he left San Francisco, but believe it was after my Father was grown. He moved back to California when he retired. Somewhere in there, he remarried...
I remember hearing his voice on an answering machine, and realizing that his voice sounded the same as mine on an answering machine. I remember his fumbling attempts to converse. I remember his failing health, and his attempts to end the effort to save him. I remember him being too weak even for that to work.
Goodbye Grandfather. I wish I could have gotten to know you better...
Posted by Andrew at 11:01 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
What kind of messages will these doubts send to our politicians at home?
For Marines, a Frustrating Fight (washingtonpost.com)
The grunts on the ground don’t think things are going well...
(bug-me-not required)
Posted by Andrew at 10:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 09, 2004
Touche!
G-Blog.net / Dazed_and_Confucius
Bitch! I'm going to spell you down.
D-O-W-N
Down!
Posted by Andrew at 02:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wet Mars?
Article: Water coursed through Martian hills | New Scientist
Posted by Andrew at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 07, 2004
This is how I have the crazy idea that perhaps things in Iraq are going poorly...
A Thin Blue Line - Why Iraqi cops are struggling. By Bing West and Owen West
Posted by Andrew at 11:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 06, 2004
Interesting...
Posted by Andrew at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Amber
Roger Zelazny is one of the Authors whose work has defined who I am. Hell some of my only really good pre-parental divorce memories involved my father reading those books to me.
One of the devices employed by the author is a system of Tarot cards designed to look like several of the characters. The characters can use these cards to communicate with one another. The link below leads to a page where fans have created their own ideas of what some of those cards should look like. Fans will enjoy it...
Of course, if you’ve never _read_ the Amber series, you’re missing one of the seminal works in S/F. Really, go pick up a copy...
Posted by Andrew at 09:54 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 05, 2004
So far, I've never heard any of these...
Posted by Andrew at 11:09 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
October 04, 2004
More insurance
I've been thinking a bit more about insurance companies. It isn’t that I’ve had a change of mind, just wanted to flesh out my thinking a bit...
The easiest way to cut healthcare costs would be to limit insurance company profit to X%/dollar spent on each patient. The government would then (every 5 years or so) sub-contract Medicare costs to whichever insurance company had the second-lowest 10 year costs/patient.
This would give insurance companies incentive to spend as much as possible (to maximize profit) and also as little as possible (to get employers/government contracts. The resulting tension should allow for a very well run system. Unless I am missing something...
Terminus has Sen. Kerry's proposal...
Posted by Andrew at 07:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 03, 2004
Reviews: (Books) Agyar
Steven Brust is very good at what he does. Fortunately, what he does is tell stories, rather than rob banks. I have to be careful when reading a new one by him: often I do not wish to put them down. This can be dangerous around finals time. Anyway, go read Agyar...
The Jack Agyar character is a vampire, though that word is never used in the book itself. The ennui he suffers is a sensation familiar to those who have read Anne Rice (take that however you wish), but the central struggle in Agyar is the titular character’s struggle to get past his lethargy...
The book is interestingly structured-- as a series of type-written journal entries. Every now and again, Jack will remark on the fact that he hasn’t mentioned certain things, and wonder why he did not see fit to set them out. While I normally am not fond of this device, Brust doesn’t make too much of it, so I let it pass...
Jack himself seems a likeable sort, the Horror of the piece did not become apparent for me until one understated bit of writing, where he tosses a woman down on a couch and-- stops typing. My eyes got wide and I realized oh gods! This is a rape scene. It is to this poor girl that Agyar returns repeatedly, haunting her, killing her slowly and driving her mad. All the while, he is falling in love with the girl’s roommate...
The book itself is under 300 pages, and rife with pathos, ethos, and good writing. It is very different from just about anything else in the Brust Collection, but also very worth reading...
Rating: 5 cloves of Garlic out of 5 wooden stakes. Bravo, Mr. Brust...
Posted by Andrew at 04:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Star Wars
I got the DVDs. Of course I did. Now, if I can just get a better TV, I can go without the VCR at all. Perhaps a pay-pal link...
Anyway. My first reaction is, of course: DAMN! My second reaction is: anyone who complains that the 5 new minutes of footage in 6 fricking hours of movie is destroying the soul of the original has something seriously wrong with them. I mean, Christ on a crutch, guys! They put cloths on people on the Sistine chapel! Then took them off again! Compared to that rape of Western Civilization, Han shooting second is the rough equivalent of being out of milk...
But as long as I bring it up: what on earth does Lucas think he is doing having Han second? The whole thing is set up beautifly. All those cuts to Han unbuttoning his blaster with his right hand, showing Greedo his left hand, waving it around all miss-directingly. What all this says is that Han knows he isn’t getting out of this situation alive if Greedo has anything to say about it. He recognizes that the instant Greedo sat down, it became kill or be killed. So Han shoots first. This isn’t murder, not morally. Han shows that he is a good solider in the War of All Against All. Indeed, the story of Star Wars is the attempt to end that War, and replace it with a new Republic where Law and not Power reigns. Over the course of the series, Han evolves into someone fit to live under the rule of Law. Upshot: he gets the princess...
But in the new scene, Greedo and Han shoot at the same time. Han becomes an incompetent hack who is lucky to survive. He could have just as easily lost to Greedo. And then where are you?
Posted by Andrew at 12:43 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 01, 2004
Only way out is through
There is an old fable of the man riding a tiger. I forget what message my parents were trying to teach me with it, but that image has always stuck with me. Here is a man on the back of a man-eating nasty creature which will destroy him the instant he wavers. Was it a mistake to get on board? Sure! But once there, letting go would be a bigger mistake. Iraq is kinda like that man on a tiger...
Perhaps a better analogy is to medieval battlefield medicine. Back in the day, they used Arrows instead of guns. Arrow heads were barbed for maximum carnage. If you tried to pull the arrowhead out of the hole it made going in, the barb would catch on tissue and bone, causing more damage. Instead, what would happen is a doctor would have to push the arrow through the body, completing the arrow’s journey, and only then pulling the barbed head out—the other side...
Which is the main problem with This article, and indeed with most analysis of Mr. Kerry’s Iraq dilemma. It assumes what we can go back in time and Never have gone into Iraq in the first place-- That if we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place, that we can easily pack up and leave in the second place. Mr. Kerry is smarter than this, he seems to understand that we’ve taken on this obligation of our own free will (no matter how drunk we were at the time), and that we are thus honor bound to see it through to the end. Pulling out now is the nice, simple answer. It would also be the disastrous one...
Posted by Andrew at 09:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack