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| Friday, October 31, 2008 |
| Organizing a Community |
I've been reading the posts on 538.com regarding how the presidential campaigns have been run with intense interest. In particular, today's post paints a vivid contrast in volunteer enthusiasm. In the article, there is an implied correlation between the enthusiasm of the effort and the amount of power and trust the volunteers are given.
With the McCain campaign, few (if any) volunteers are given enough rope to so much as talk to reporters, for fear of going off-message. Obama's campaign, on the other hand, gives their volunteers guides but are otherwise given free reign to organize, call, and knock on doors. Sometimes this backfires on the Obama campaign. A long while ago, during the primaries, there was a volunteer with a Che Guevara poster hanging up, and more recently, an Obama caller did some drinking and dialing.
Although -- frankly, that audio is awesomely hilarious!
But the payoff is huge: Every town in America has a slew of Obama supporters creating meetings, doing phone bank parties, and canvassing neighborhoods. 538's correspondents have had a hard time just finding McCain volunteers, while Obama supporters are up late every night in houses and offices across the nation.
The conservative ideal is for people to have the power and freedom to guide their own lives without government interference. It's amusing and ironic that the Democratic candidate is running his campaign in such a grass-roots manner.
All of this is background information for a startling conclusion I came up with while reading that 538 article (appropriately called "The Big Empty"): Obama has run his campaign like a community organizer. That much-ridiculed term, which has served as a talking point and particularly ridiculed as resume padding is going to win him the election.
The role of the President is the most mercurial of the 3 branches of the U.S. Government, and its power and stature has ebbed and flowed through the centuries of our nation. But at the moment, I would say that its role is not unlike that of a community organizer: To develop and implement programs that help the U.S. help itself. Many of the most famous Presidential Programs are community programs writ large: Just Say No, The President's Challenge, and so on.
I've maintained for a while now that the power of an Obama presidency lies in his ability to get Americans to help America. Hopefully he will be enough of a centrist to allow those he inspires to do the heavy lifting.Labels: community, government, Obama, people, politics |
posted by Steve @ 12:23 PM  |
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| Friday, April 11, 2008 |
| Police and Shepherds |
People on both sides have decried the United States' role as the "world police" - endlessly stomping out trouble in other people's back yards for fear it will spread into ours. Such difficulties are to be expected in the new, connected world, but the financial burden as well as the lives lost are difficult to justify. The Republicans, in their recent stint in office, have taken the "world police" notion to a whole new level of ridiculousness: the preemptive war. This sort of thing was once a funny joke in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"The phases [of the history of warfare] are retribution, anticipation, and diplomacy. Thus, retribution: "I'm going to kill you because you killed my brother." Anticipation: "I'm going to kill you because I killed your brother." And diplomacy: "I'm going to kill my brother and then kill you on the pretext that your brother did it."
It takes a conspiracy theorist to believe we are at the "diplomacy" level, although there are plenty of them, and they probably could make convincing arguments that we have killed people in our "brother" nations and that we've framed others for it, or otherwise mixed up the politics enough to make the situation similar. Remember: we gave Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan most of their guns. Same goes for the warring factions in Somalia, too. It's pretty clear that this method of giving lots of guns to people who hate each other, and then going in and fighting with everyone in the name of security isn't working.
I am a political Independent, because above all, I'm a pragmatist. With apologies to SNL, bitches don't get things done. Hard-thinking, level-headed, smart people get things done. And the only way to get meaningful change like universal health care, an end to abortion, worldwide green power, and especially relative world peace is to make it profitable and in every single person's best interest to make sure it happens. The very powerful have to be given a reason to care, and the weak have to be given a way and the hope to act.
So how can the powerful be given reason to care about world peace, given the military-industrial complex, and how can the weak be given hope and means when they are at its mercy?
This, above all, is the role of government. The government is able to change the rules for normal people. For example, right now you get a tax break for donating a lot of money to charities. It's also in the best interest of rich owners to treat their workers well, because of laws and unions. That wouldn't exist without government. The execution of this responsibility has made great strides in the U.S. and elsewhere, although the U.S. took several leaps backwards in the last 20-30 years or so.
But it's time for it to get back on the horse. Because the world is more connected, turning a blind eye to corporate greed abroad is as harmful in the long run to us as arming the Middle East to the teeth, because irresponsible greed breeds hate. On the other hand, we already have rules that encourage green technology, programs like the Peace Corps, and other worldwide charity - and we need more of those rules.
The ways and means have been defined well, and they've been shown to work. We just need to see them implemented.Labels: economics, environment, global, government, peace, people, politics, war, work |
| posted by Steve @ 10:18 AM |
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| Thursday, April 10, 2008 |
| God's Judgment... of idiots |
The Stranger, a Seattle newspaper, has a blog (called Slog). It's very liberal, and overtly pro-gay, partly because it's moderated by the fantastic and fabulously gay Dan Savage. Those who fly that banner are often frustrated by arguments that "every child deserves a mother and father" when nearly half of the children today only get one or the other. They're also frustrated by a Catholic Church that points its finger at them as the root of all childhood evils (through declarations and oft-contradicted studies), and is regularly caught molesting its own congregation's children.
So, Slog regularly contains news of badly-behaving parents and youth pastors, under the headings "Every Child Deserves a Mother and Father" and "Youth Pastor Watch," respectively. To an extent, it's an unhealthy impulse on their part to feel better about their own parenting or moral standing by exposing the worst of their opponents (who, ultimately, have no effect on their parenting abilities or moral standings); but then, pointing out hypocrisy in any form is a worthwhile goal.
Elsewhere in the newspaper, in their Last Days news bits blotter, a few articles about people "killed by religion" were posted. They detailed the sad deaths of children of people who believe in faith healing over medicine. They got an apoplectic response from a guy named Dale Richard Huff that I just had to show bits of:
I want to make clear firstly that I do not peruse your scandal sheet. There are volunteers who read the Stranger and inform us when a campaign of anti-Christian slander has slithered from the sewer like a demon from Hell.
I think I tried telling my Dad I didn't read his Playboys in a similar manner when I was a teenager.
I thought you liberals hated interrogating "terrorists"? Oh that's right that is only for your "approved" religion of Islam and the Islam-o-fascists [sic] whom you believe to be somehow your "buddies". Hee! Islam-o-matic! Tel-o-thon! Mess-o-potamia! Nutty guy-o-mail!
...the Secular Fascist Left, been doing for 30 years to eventually annihilate Christianity, Christians, America, Faith, [etc.] ... Mussolini defined fascism as being a collectivistic ideology in opposition to socialism, liberalism, democracy and individualism. So ... what exactly is a "fascist lefty"?
And rest assured this lawsuit WILL GO FORWARD, and your conspiracy will answer in OPEN CHRISTIAN COURT for your lies, defamations, slanders, [etc.], flat out meaness [sic] and rotteness [sic], and any other damn thing you have up your sleeve and haven't been vile enough to do yet! Ok, the day there is a Christian Court in the U.S. government, the United States will have died, and I will leave the country. I'm a Catholic, and I'm very happy that I don't live in a Christian Nation. There has been a long, steady trend throughout History: quality of government is inversely proportional to the influence of religion on that government.
Need I remind you, sir- glorious [volcanic] Mount Raineer [sic, should be Rainer] is a scant 60 miles away from your temple of degeneracy, and the LORD GOD will not be mocked! Wow. He certainly does seem to think he knows everything Lord is up to, doesn't he? Among the meek, this character is not.
IN THE NAME OF JESUS, HIS FATHER, SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT- Dale Richard Huff, SEMPER FI DO OR DIE! Jesus had a son?
Look, God judges everyone, and it should be noted that His judgment of idiots is usually pretty harsh. These judgments, ironically, are often titled, "Darwin Awards." Sometimes, He acts through people, though His use of gravity seems to be a favorite.
Unfortunately, the judgments aren't very evenly fair. Children, in particular, have to absorb the results of their parents' idiocy. To me, the most ironic and saddening instances are ones involving
people whose stances on religion are idiotic enough to visit pain on others. I don't see the reasoning behind faith healing. By all means, pray. I prayed when my brother-in-law Jordan smashed his head a few weeks ago, but I certainly didn't want to keep him out of the hospital that saved his life.
God, cruelly, gave us a brain that can only wrestle with these contradictions of faith and the real world, but cannot solve them. But clearly we are meant to use that brain! Scientists and doctors labor to find ways to ease and lengthen the amount of time we have to wrestle the impossible mental task we're given. We'll never do it, of course, but a little more time in front of the puzzle before bed is something we're all entitled to ask for.
God may be great and powerful, but we have a measure of power, too, and since it is God-given, we should use it. Part of that power is in medicine. Unfortunately for those kids, their parents were so in awe of God's power that they ignored their own helplessness.Labels: God, government, idiots, Jordan, religion |
| posted by Steve @ 12:28 PM |
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| Wednesday, March 05, 2008 |
| Awesome word of the day: Porkalicious |
Porkalicious (pōrk-ŭ-lĬsh-əs)
adj.
- Unusually absurd legislation that has been inserted government spending legislation, in return for political support.
- Very delicious pork.
Ex:
"When you see construction of a new [road that is], unpriced and not likely that it'll soon become overcrowded, you're looking at a porkalicious "bridge to nowhere" sort of phenomenon where people are constructing something that has a cost out of proportion to its value."
Labels: english, government, random |
| posted by Steve @ 1:45 PM |
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| Monday, February 18, 2008 |
| The Advocate Government |
There are a lot of little government programs designed to help people out. The Federal Trade Commission has a department and a response center designed to educate the public about identity theft, and a must-do list for people on debt management programs. The Department of Health and Human Services has a site that outlines tips to prevent medical errors.
Ultimately, the government manages a trust of money - taxes - to help support the people live lives that will yield success through work. And in many ways, it does that. But it seems that most of these programs languish in obscurity. I hope that the government continues its modernization, and that the public will be able to actually use the programs.
The idea of searching that sort of thing, presidential YouTubes/podcasting and other similar innovations may not be so far-fetched, if we have a president who's willing to actually talk to us plebians.Labels: government, Internet, power, technology |
| posted by Steve @ 3:59 PM |
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| Sunday, February 03, 2008 |
| The Good Government |
It used to be the people in power could pretty much sit back, have orgies and collect taxes until the Revolution came, and when it did they were treated to a quick death that sure beat syphilis.
Now, the best they can hope for is a blowjob and some kickbacks (although, the above is still true in parts of the Middle East, former parts of the USSR, and most of Africa).
The biggest reason for that is that in developed countries, the citizenry have raised the bar of expectations to levels a 13th-century serf couldn't have imagined: free education, good roads, and food regulations. More recently, free public health care and welfare programs have upped the ante substantially (to mixed success). The government is suddenly there for the common good! But it's not the easiest thing to get people to do what's good for them in the long term, or as a whole, when they can do stuff that benefits them in the short-term but hurts the group as a whole.
Take those ubiquitous little plastic shopping bags. About two thousand are made per second (42 billion per year), and a lot of them end up in landfills, but an awful lot end up in forests, streams and sewage systems. It's a little problem, on an individual scale, but when anything is multiplied by millions or billions, things get dicey. This is the kind of problem that governments are ideally suited to fix. Ireland has done a nice job in the way that a government knows best: action through taxes. It charged 33 cents per bag sold (a type of 'sin tax') and suddenly everyone uses cloth bags, putting the plastic bags in the category of social ills like not picking up your dog's poo.
This is how governments can do some real good very easily: appeal to the Capitalist system we use to make it profitable or in people's best interest to do the right thing. Obama wants to charge companies and power-plants for every pound of smog produced, and give the income to subsidize the companies that buck up and use more expensive, non-polluting means.Labels: food, government, history, money, Obama, taxes |
| posted by Steve @ 1:56 PM |
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| Saturday, February 02, 2008 |
| Hive Mind vs. Groupthink |
In general, I like Microsoft Vista. They made a lot of changes that obviously needed to happen, added a bit of chrome, and generally it works for me. Now, I realize this is because my computer kicks ass: two dual-core 3GHz 64-bit processors, 4GB RAM, two RAID arrays totaling 1TB, and a pair of 512MB video cards connected to a pair of flat monitors.
Yeah, I know.
The trouble with Vista, though, is often that it's new: compatibility and configuration are a bit harder. I had this problem when I couldn't figure out why my video card wouldn't display higher than 1024x768 (I prefer 1280x1024). Thankfully, there was this little article on softpedia, describing the symptoms exactly and how to get around it.
Apart from the incredible convenience of the article, it's remarkable how specific the article is. This is an example of how the Internet allows for group thinking that isn't hampered by "groupthink." The first time I saw this potential was way back in 2001 when the movie A.I. had the first really successful alternate reality game (later named by its participants The Beast). The game was impossibly difficult for any one person - it required people to work together. Unfortunately for the developers, their own puzzles (which required knowledge of dozens of languages, expertise in chemistry, physics, philosophy, programming, and other sciences) would be solved within minutes by the thousands of people who worked on the solutions. Inevitably, someone in the Cloudmakers (as the participants named themselves; the website is down but the link goes to the Wayback Machine cache from 2002) knew how to solve the problem.
I love this concept: the Internet allows communication between people. People are generally inherently capable. MIT created "Fab Labs" that were able to create most anything (3-d printer, circuitboard printers, etc.). 3 students at MIT are doing their theses on the work of six year old villagers in Africa, who had better basic designs than the engineers in the U.S. Harnessing the total knowledge of a huge group of people is something that, if it can be done efficiently (i.e., with a minimum of groupthink), would be as massive a step forward as the Industrial Revolution.
I'm pretty glad to be alive sometimes.
This dissemination of information isn't limited to merely solving technical problems or riddles. It has also been suggested by Scott Adams (who writes Dilbert) that if a massive e-mail pen pal initiative among all nations would make it vastly more difficult to go to war:
"You might support your government in a war against a country full of people you don’t know. But would you support a war that has a good chance of killing your e-mail friend Phlubanakawahaha and his entire family?" Also, if that family helped design your super-cool phone/lamp/radiator, you might think twice if you wanted to upgrade anytime soon.Labels: blog, cartoons, computers, government, idiots, information, Internet, life, people, politics, power, random, reason, technology, war |
| posted by Steve @ 5:46 AM |
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| Monday, August 20, 2007 |
| A simple test on the Iraq war |
I don't think many people disagree with me that the Iraq war could be going better.
But I was thinking about whether or not I was against the war, in of itself: was it right to oust the crazy old dictator, Saddam Hussein?
In light of the fact that Al Qaeda and Iraq had no significant ties, and that they didn't have weapons of mass destruction, I think the best way for each person to answer that is this:
Would you have gone to war with Iraq before 2001?
That is, would you have been in favor of militarily ousting the guy? I don't think I'd have been in favor of it, but I can understand why someone who enjoys torturing people for no good reason (there is no good reason) shouldn't be a head of state.
But at that time and now, I'm quite sure we can do more good for more people through political means both friendly and coercive. Sometimes, it's just not possible to win a war, no matter your military might. You've got to recognize that as a country; it's what Eisenhower did when he got the heck out of Korea and, very importantly, this brilliant general used political means that drew lines and kept a cold peace for more than fifty years.
Our track record of regime changing is uniformly bad: it didn't work in Vietnam, it didn't work with Pinoche or anywhere in South America, and it didn't work in Iraq.
The only time that we went into that kind of situation and had it not totally blow up in our face was when, in the first Iraqi war, we stopped short of Baghdad.
So while I'm not opposed to a strong military, or even military action, if this is how it's going to be carried out, we may as well not bother! Moreover, we should have taken the world's unity with the United States - and we had it after 2001, before we attacked Iraq - to levy economic, political and social reform through economics, politics and social means.
~~~
I suppose what bothers me more than anything about the whole debacle after 2001 is that we had the whole world on our side. The changing of the guard in Birmingham had 2 minutes' silence and - at this old English ceremony - our national anthem was played.
So much good will is impossible to recover, and difficult to gain without these tragedies.Labels: government, politics, war |
| posted by Steve @ 6:17 PM |
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| Sunday, April 22, 2007 |
| Impulse? Impulse Media? |
I have started looking into making my sole proprietorship business a reality - after freelancing for a half decade.
What? I was busy.
The main reason is so that I can deduct a lot of my business-related expenses. While I do (often) question what is being done with my money, I don't plan on weaseling my way out of taxes completely. Strikes me as un-patriotic and, well, weasel-y.
So that means I will be reading government forms in my spare time. Oh, the joy! But it will be worth it. After all, I'm putting all the music, design, and art into one business. That means that a new computer, guitar, and paint are deductible. I just hope that the IRS understand that the design will be funding the other two - the music and art are a rather long shot at ever becoming profitable, but I think the odds are good enough to merit the business' money...Labels: design, government, impulse designs, Impulse Nine, irs, sole proprietor, taxes |
| posted by Steve @ 12:57 AM |
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| Tuesday, October 04, 2005 |
| Political Rant no. 3: Letter to Senator McCain |
Senator McCain -
I want to say first that, cynical as I've become, you've always surprised me with your candid, sensible approach to governing. I understand your decisions - even when I dont agree with them. You have a supporter if youd like to become President.
I have three things I'd like to point out to you: taxes, energy, and Jon Stewart.
I believe IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson has done well and deserves the money to continue properly taxing. In particular, I would love to see the evasion of taxes involving mutual funds, off-shore accounts, etc, come to an end. People like me, who can't afford anything we havent fought bitterly for, feel cheated when shown things like this:
"On March 30, 2004, Congress was told that 78 percent of known tax cheats in investment partnerships are not even asked to pay because there are not enough tax collectors to go after them. While letting rich tax cheats run wild, Congress did finance a crackdown on the poor. The working poor, most of whom make less than $16,000, are eight times more likely to be audited than millionaire investors in partnerships." (source)
Let him do his job well, and the deficit will be cleared just that much faster.
Energy. I have never been so sad and yet grinned so wide when I read your statements (1, 2)about the Energy Bill. In all seriousness - THANK YOU for recognizing it for what it is. More importantly, thank you for recognizing that what weve done so far is inadequate, in particular with fuels and ethanol (gasohol). Most of the current solutions involve one of two things: New forms of transportation (electric, hybrids) or radically modifying our current cars (bio-diesel). I applaud your work with Senator Lieberman on encouraging new technologies. However, while new technologies should be employed in new vehicles, consider the ratio of new vehicles to old. It will be a long time before the new-technology vehicles are enough in number compared to old-technology for them to do significant good.
What we need is something that will run relatively clean on current and older cars. Weve spent $200 Billion on Iraq why dont we give $20 Billion to scientists from DuPont, Harvard, and the military and say make a substance that burns at a spark smoothly at 92 octane, does not freeze above -20 degrees F, nor evaporate below 140, and runs my 62 VW as well as a new Corvette, at a total cost of less than $1 per gallon to the consumer. I just refuse to believe that its impossible.
Energy independence is something that is well worth the cost of research. Imagine if tomorrow, we sent a diplomat to all of the nations in the squabbling Middle East and say, "we dont need your oil and were selling our new substitute to Europe for a buck a gallon." Instant reform. They would have to their whole economies are based on oil. Thats how they can have ridiculous poverty and no women working.
I understand that this is armchair politics, easy from where I am sitting and much more difficult to actually do. Please, help take the momentum of the unanimous public assertion that the Energy bill was terrible and help propose putting money where America can use it best - a product we can sell to improve our economy that also severs our umbilical cord to the Middle East.
Finally, look for the clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which your conversation with General Richard Myers. You received resounding applause.
[signed]
 | Currently listening :
Rattle and Hum
By U2 |
Labels: environment, gas, government, irs, money, oil, politics, rant |
| posted by Steve @ 4:04 PM |
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| Friday, September 09, 2005 |
| Political Rant No. 2: CONSPIRACY! |
It seems that, in light of the endless debacle that is FEMA, it's appropriate I recall my Mother's wisdom. Well ... you should know about my Mom before I dispense. She's been working in the nursing and health care world for several decades now and it was/is usually in the government end - at Maricopa County hospital, the VA, or in her decade-long stint in the Navy. She knows how the government works (or doesn't work) as well as anybody when it comes to high-stakes issues (and it doesn't get higher stakes than, say, life and death). Her take on conspiracies goes something like this:
The U.S. Government couldn't possibly hide anything of real significance - such as aliens living among us - because it simply doesn't run effectively or efficiently enough to do so.
 | Currently listening :
Absolution
By Muse |
Labels: conspiracy, family, government, joke |
| posted by Steve @ 2:36 AM |
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| Sunday, August 07, 2005 |
| Anecdotes no. 1 and 2 |
These are small bits of a few stories I've had in my head for a little while. ~~ The old priest wiped off his face and turned to his friend. "Jacob, I feel like I'm going to Heaven through Hell."
~~
"Don't give me that crap, you goon!" It probably wasn't the best thing to say at the time, but Peter had had enough. The Agent adjusted his tie. "You don't scare me with your conspiratorial crap - we both know I'd been on that lead for years and know what's going on. I wasn't born yesterday." The Agent looked bored and looked over Peter's shoulder.
Peter woke up with a headache, still wearing his jumpsuit and sat up in his own bed. He looked around and saw nothing unusual in his room except that his wallet and keys were on his dresser instead of in the usual spot. He got up groggily to examine them and found that the only thing left in the wallet was the picture that had started the whole mess - with the Agent's face scratched out roughly.
"Damn." He got a few twenties from his stash in the closet and got into the car. He could just picture what would happen if he got pulled over - "I'm sorry, Sir, I don't have my ID because I was involved in a government coverup and they took my ID and seventeen bucks." He got his watch - it said 26 SEP, which meant he'd been gone three days.
He headed straight for the DMV.
"I need a new driver's license, ma'am." The bored-looking clerk accepted his credit card, Passport, and Social Security card. "There's a problem here, sir."
"What?"
"It says your birthday is on the 25th of September." Peter blinked. "I was born August 15th, ma'am."
"And that's what all your documents say, too but -- wait." She blinked at her computer. "It says you were born the 25th ... of this year." There was a beat. And he muttered, "Fucking agents."
 | Currently listening :
Siamese Dream
By Smashing Pumpkins
Release date: By 27 July, 1993 |
Labels: anecdote, fiction, government, stories |
| posted by Steve @ 11:59 PM |
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| About Me |
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Name: Steve
Home: Tucson, Arizona, United States
About Me: I like to think about things, and I occasionally like to write what I think.
See my complete profile
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