The Fulcrum
Friday, January 09, 2004
Late Friday Dog Blogging
For all of you who were waiting for this week's picture of Baylea - on my intermittent Friday Dog Blog - wait no more.
This was taken about 5:30 this evening; the temperature was hovering around 0F with windchills around -12F. That's Kim with Baylea in about 14 inches of very fluffy, lake effect snow. It's her dog; that's why she's shivering in the cold and I'm taking the picture from the warm doorway!!
This was taken about 5:30 this evening; the temperature was hovering around 0F with windchills around -12F. That's Kim with Baylea in about 14 inches of very fluffy, lake effect snow. It's her dog; that's why she's shivering in the cold and I'm taking the picture from the warm doorway!!
My Scrabble Score
Thanks to fellow LC member,Pen-Elayne for posting about this:
It's the "Z" that gets me all those points! Scrabble just happens to be one of my favorite games.
Pholph's Scrabble Generator          My Scrabble© Score is: 28. What is your score? Get it here. |
It's the "Z" that gets me all those points! Scrabble just happens to be one of my favorite games.
America is Sick
Here's Bob Herbert in today's New York Times:
He's discussing the way states are dropping people, especially children from health insurance programs because of budget shortfalls. You can read the rest, if you're up to it, here.
Maybe the nation itself needs a doctor. Shoving low-income people, including children, off the health care rolls at a time when the economy is allegedly booming is a sure sign of some kind of sickness in the society.I couldn't agree more.
He's discussing the way states are dropping people, especially children from health insurance programs because of budget shortfalls. You can read the rest, if you're up to it, here.
Alert Level: Ludicrous
Via Atrios; from The Register.
A mother making an inquiry at a Massachusetts Staple store about MS Flight Simulator for her son is visited in the night by a State Trooper who was alerted by store management.
We might as well just invite the Taliban to Washington.
My head is sore from pounding on my desk.
Somebody make it stop.
A mother making an inquiry at a Massachusetts Staple store about MS Flight Simulator for her son is visited in the night by a State Trooper who was alerted by store management.
So alarmed was the Staples clerk at the prospect of the ten year old learning to fly, that he informed the police, the Greenfield Recorder reports. The authorities moved into action, leaving nothing to chance. A few days later, Olearcek was alarmed to discover a state trooper flashing a torch into to her home through a sliding glass door at 8:30 pm on a rainy night.This, of course, on the heels of the story about officials being alerted to be on the watch for people carrying maps and almanacs.
We might as well just invite the Taliban to Washington.
My head is sore from pounding on my desk.
Somebody make it stop.
"Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!"
I sure with they'd do something about it here... It's cold. Really cold. My indoor-outdoor thermometer said it was -3F this morning. The high is supposed to be around 5, but I doubt it will get that "warm."
The snow is beautiful, and if I were at home during daylight hours I'd have the digital camera outside and show you all. But there's that whole work thing... We got about 14 inches yesterday, about 4 last night and are expecting 2 - 4 inches today and another 4 inches or more tonight. I'm so glad I bought that tractor with the snow blower!
Anyway, here's what the Weather Channel has to say about our weather:
As Jimmy Buffet says: "The weather is here, wish you were beautiful."
The snow is beautiful, and if I were at home during daylight hours I'd have the digital camera outside and show you all. But there's that whole work thing... We got about 14 inches yesterday, about 4 last night and are expecting 2 - 4 inches today and another 4 inches or more tonight. I'm so glad I bought that tractor with the snow blower!
Anyway, here's what the Weather Channel has to say about our weather:
As Jimmy Buffet says: "The weather is here, wish you were beautiful."
Thursday, January 08, 2004
WMD Search Team Withdrawn
Their entry into Iraq immediately after "major combat operations ended" was trumpeted by BushCo. Their mission: to find the massive stockpiles of "weapons of mass destruction" the administration was convinced were hiding all over Iraq.
Today, in the New York Times, we find out that the team of 400 has been very quietly withdrawn.
This revelation comes after yesterday's report in the Washington Post that claimed Iraq's WMD destroyed in the first Gulf War and that sanctions and the no-fly zone prevented Hussein from rebuilding and testing his programs.
Just how goddamn difficult is it for the media and the public to connect these dots? Why is this not front page news and blaring out of TV sets across America? Where is our free press?
NOTE: Thanks to Hesiod for the heads up on the NYT article.
Today, in the New York Times, we find out that the team of 400 has been very quietly withdrawn.
The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment, according to senior government officials."Quietly withdrawn." Why quietly? Because to do so under the full glare of media attention - oh, wait, never mind that part (what liberal media?) - any way, because to admit to doing so would force the public to see that the entire rationale for going to war in the fist place was a bald faced lie.
The step was described by some military officials as a sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March.
This revelation comes after yesterday's report in the Washington Post that claimed Iraq's WMD destroyed in the first Gulf War and that sanctions and the no-fly zone prevented Hussein from rebuilding and testing his programs.
Just how goddamn difficult is it for the media and the public to connect these dots? Why is this not front page news and blaring out of TV sets across America? Where is our free press?
NOTE: Thanks to Hesiod for the heads up on the NYT article.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Outsourcing, Offshoring, It's All the Same: Lost Jobs
It's unlikely that the CEO of Hewlett-Packard will ever have to worry about her job being transplanted to India or China or Pakistan. But she's not worried about her own people's high-tech jobs either. Not worried at all. In fact, she could care less.
That's the opening paragraph of my latest entry over at The Liberal Coalition blog, where I unload on a couple of high-tech CEOs who claim that Americans no longer have the right to expect American companies to employ them.
Grit your teeth, put away all sharp objects and go read the rest of it here.
Then peruse the rest of the Coalition site - there are some great folks writing there.
That's the opening paragraph of my latest entry over at The Liberal Coalition blog, where I unload on a couple of high-tech CEOs who claim that Americans no longer have the right to expect American companies to employ them.
Grit your teeth, put away all sharp objects and go read the rest of it here.
Then peruse the rest of the Coalition site - there are some great folks writing there.
Belated Blogabout
I haven't been quite as diligent in my Liberal Coalition Blogabouts lately. So, without further ado:
Pen-Elayne opines that it does no one any good to call someone stupid.
Wow! NTodd over at Dohiyi Mir actually agrees with David Brooks (R. NY (Times, that is)). He writes about the - hopefully - impending conservative implosion.
Finally, Trish Wilson has a post on the hypocrisy of right-wing fundamentalists who harp on the moral decay of the nation. She compares divorce and cohabiting rates for fundies, your ordinary religious folks and even atheists; they should probably not be casting stones given the large glass house they are apparently living in.
So ends another, all too infrequent, Liberal Coalition Blogabout on The Fulcrum! I would make promises to be more diligent in doing the next one, but I hate to lie to my readers and friends.
Enjoy!
Pen-Elayne opines that it does no one any good to call someone stupid.
But I'm not above admitting there's something tastelessly dismissive about tagging a whole voting bloc as stupid just because they like someone you don't. That's why "the pollsters don't ask it" and "the media don't report it" (except of course Starkman and Hal Crowther and...). Because it's not true (Bush voters, besides not even being the popular majority, are no more a product of monolithic group-think than anyone else) and -- well, I'll blare it out so Starkman can perhaps adopt strategies to overcome it -- it makes you sound like an asshole.Lambert, at Corente, has a short, but sweet, post on entitlement in the Bush family. Or as Lambert says: "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
Wow! NTodd over at Dohiyi Mir actually agrees with David Brooks (R. NY (Times, that is)). He writes about the - hopefully - impending conservative implosion.
Brooks concludes in his piece: Partisanship has left many people unhinged. Concur 100%Rubber Hose's Upyernoze has some questions about the long-term legal problems with arbitration under local Sharia. He has an interesting take on it being a lawyer.
Finally, Trish Wilson has a post on the hypocrisy of right-wing fundamentalists who harp on the moral decay of the nation. She compares divorce and cohabiting rates for fundies, your ordinary religious folks and even atheists; they should probably not be casting stones given the large glass house they are apparently living in.
So ends another, all too infrequent, Liberal Coalition Blogabout on The Fulcrum! I would make promises to be more diligent in doing the next one, but I hate to lie to my readers and friends.
Enjoy!
Winter is Back.
Last Saturday it was 60 degrees here in Rochester, NY (just outside actually, but I'm rounding up). Below is a partial screenshot of today's weather:
Winter has returned with a vengeance!
Winter has returned with a vengeance!
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Blogging Help
Anyone out there know an easy way to alphabetize my blogroll? I'm kind of anal about that sort of stuff (and yet lazy about putting out too much effort) and it bugs me that I haven't been able to find a truly easy method.
Any assistance would be appreciated!
UPDATE 01/07/03: Thanks for the suggestions on how to get this done. I've added "Blogroller" to my template and it appears to be working well.
Any assistance would be appreciated!
UPDATE 01/07/03: Thanks for the suggestions on how to get this done. I've added "Blogroller" to my template and it appears to be working well.
Creative Destruction
Most people would call that headline an oxymoron - and in this specific case, they'd likely be correct. In this morning's Wall Street Journal, there's an editorial piece (subscription required) discussing outsourcing of service jobs to India or China.
As you'd expect, the editor is all in favor of outsourcing. He quotes Joseph Schumpeter, calling such outsourcing "creative destruction." The idea being that as such jobs are outsourced, saving companies about 58 cents for each dollar in wages moved off-shore, the money saved is then used for innovation and future job creation; "creating new jobs we often can't imagine."
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Think tax cuts for corporations and the rich that create massive deficits which will be erased by future revenues "we often can't imagine."
The WSJ's answer? Well, you'll recognize most of them - warmed over as they are:
Even if we could depend on aWol to implement such schemes fairly, it would only do the next generation of workers good. Those whose jobs move to India or China today are stuck with shrinking unemployment benefits, loss of medical insurance and a shredded social safety net.
But of course, you can always depend on conservatives to be compassionate, no? When it comes right down to it, here's the money quote from the WSJ article, the one that really says how our compassionate conservative politicians think. When discussing some state laws requiring call centers to re-route calls to an American location if the caller requests, the editor says: "We doubt someone from South Dakota finds it any easier than someone from Delhi to understand a New Jersey accent."
In other words, suck it up.
I wonder if we could outsource the government?
As you'd expect, the editor is all in favor of outsourcing. He quotes Joseph Schumpeter, calling such outsourcing "creative destruction." The idea being that as such jobs are outsourced, saving companies about 58 cents for each dollar in wages moved off-shore, the money saved is then used for innovation and future job creation; "creating new jobs we often can't imagine."
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Think tax cuts for corporations and the rich that create massive deficits which will be erased by future revenues "we often can't imagine."
The WSJ's answer? Well, you'll recognize most of them - warmed over as they are:
"The alternative is to do what it takes for Americans to remain innovative and create the next wave of wealth-creating technology and ideas. Improve K-12 education, especially in the inner city, maintain an open immigration policy so the world's brains can live in the U.S., reform the tax code and fix the legal system."We already know about BushCo's commitment to education: No Child Left Behind is woefully underfunded and is now basically just lip service. And just how open an immigration policy we have - or can have - is wide-open to debate given the ever tightening scrutiny of immigrants. Tax code reform under Bush is reform only from the point of view of the very rich. And fixing the legal system basically means protecting business from all forms of civil action.
Even if we could depend on aWol to implement such schemes fairly, it would only do the next generation of workers good. Those whose jobs move to India or China today are stuck with shrinking unemployment benefits, loss of medical insurance and a shredded social safety net.
But of course, you can always depend on conservatives to be compassionate, no? When it comes right down to it, here's the money quote from the WSJ article, the one that really says how our compassionate conservative politicians think. When discussing some state laws requiring call centers to re-route calls to an American location if the caller requests, the editor says: "We doubt someone from South Dakota finds it any easier than someone from Delhi to understand a New Jersey accent."
In other words, suck it up.
I wonder if we could outsource the government?
Monday, January 05, 2004
Smile for the Camera - While We Fight the Last Battle
The military - and governments in general - almost always prepare to fight the next war like they should have fought the last one. Unfortunately, the world and our enemies do not remain static. They evolve, change. So nearly always, militaries must learn on-the-fly during a war how to fight this evolved enemy. We are seeing this clearly in the aftermath of the latest Gulf War; we went in thinking we were in for a tank-on-tank, division-on-division open territory battle like Gulf War I. Instead, the Iraqi army faded into the population in the cities and, along with insurgents and a few foreigners, are fighting a guerilla type warfare.
We are also seeing this failure to learn and adapt by the Department of Homeland Security. Today began their latest program of photographing and fingerprinting visitors to the US (only from certain countries) in the hope of catching someone on the terrorist watch list coming in through major international airports and cruise ports. In the details there are concerns about privacy, but in general this is probably not a horrible idea if executed correctly and fairly. Most importantly, though, is that this is how the last group of successful terrorists made it into the country to perpetrate 9-11. It is unlikely they will use this method again.
While Secretary Ridge screws around with taking care of the last threat, the most likely avenue for a future threat remains woefully unprotected: our major cargo ports of entry. With incoming cargo ships loaded with almost uncountable containers inspected at a rate in the low single digits (if I remember the last report correctly), this remains our most vulnerable spot. But because it is nearly unseen by most Americans it is nearly ignored in favor of more visible actions.
But we shouldn't be surprised at this; this administration is all about the appearance of action. Appearances can be deceiving, but only if you're not paying attention. And I guarantee you: al Qaeda is paying attention. You remember al Qaeda, don't you? They were the ones really responsible for 9-11. Of course with BushCo. paying so little attention to them, you could be forgiven for not remembering.
That's my job - to remind.
Don't be fooled; we are not safer since the capture of Saddam, hiding incommunicado in his hole. Al Qaeda remains a potent foe dedicated to doing our country harm.
Remember.
We are also seeing this failure to learn and adapt by the Department of Homeland Security. Today began their latest program of photographing and fingerprinting visitors to the US (only from certain countries) in the hope of catching someone on the terrorist watch list coming in through major international airports and cruise ports. In the details there are concerns about privacy, but in general this is probably not a horrible idea if executed correctly and fairly. Most importantly, though, is that this is how the last group of successful terrorists made it into the country to perpetrate 9-11. It is unlikely they will use this method again.
While Secretary Ridge screws around with taking care of the last threat, the most likely avenue for a future threat remains woefully unprotected: our major cargo ports of entry. With incoming cargo ships loaded with almost uncountable containers inspected at a rate in the low single digits (if I remember the last report correctly), this remains our most vulnerable spot. But because it is nearly unseen by most Americans it is nearly ignored in favor of more visible actions.
But we shouldn't be surprised at this; this administration is all about the appearance of action. Appearances can be deceiving, but only if you're not paying attention. And I guarantee you: al Qaeda is paying attention. You remember al Qaeda, don't you? They were the ones really responsible for 9-11. Of course with BushCo. paying so little attention to them, you could be forgiven for not remembering.
That's my job - to remind.
Don't be fooled; we are not safer since the capture of Saddam, hiding incommunicado in his hole. Al Qaeda remains a potent foe dedicated to doing our country harm.
Remember.
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Spirit on Mars!
After recent failures (and apparent failures - Beagle), NASA seemed to be preparing the world for the worst; just in case. But last night, after a series of complex maneuvers and a bouncy landing, Spirit signaled that all was well and that it was ready to begin its search for signs of life.
Since our ancestors first looked to the sky, Mars' red hue has caught our interest. The color of blood, it has long stood as the god of war, the bringer of doom. Until the late 19th century when H.G. Wells put some of the first aliens on Mars. Ever since it's been the home of little green men, flying saucers and other, assorted boojums.
Since the Viking landings of the early 1970's Mars has seemed our best hope of finding life - or signs of past life - in the Solar System outside of Earth. The more photographs we saw of the surface, the more convinced scientists became that there was once liquid water on the surface; the most necessary ingredient for life. Follow-on missions were inconclusive at best on whether there was life there, so now Spirit, a larger, more capable rover is there. It offers our best chance so far to begin putting an answer to that ancient question; "Are we alone?"
Since our ancestors first looked to the sky, Mars' red hue has caught our interest. The color of blood, it has long stood as the god of war, the bringer of doom. Until the late 19th century when H.G. Wells put some of the first aliens on Mars. Ever since it's been the home of little green men, flying saucers and other, assorted boojums.
Since the Viking landings of the early 1970's Mars has seemed our best hope of finding life - or signs of past life - in the Solar System outside of Earth. The more photographs we saw of the surface, the more convinced scientists became that there was once liquid water on the surface; the most necessary ingredient for life. Follow-on missions were inconclusive at best on whether there was life there, so now Spirit, a larger, more capable rover is there. It offers our best chance so far to begin putting an answer to that ancient question; "Are we alone?"
