Althouse, MoDo, Obama

Here is Blogger and Law Professor Ann Althouse, commenting on New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd, commenting on President Barack Obama.

I think the last paragraph sums it up.

And there are 203 comments at this point.

Regards  —  Cliff

Ballot Initiatives

Here is my take:

1. Issue 1 is about the adding of the Sales Tax to alcohol sales.  I take this as a weak action on the part of the General Court.  Thinking that they needed more money, our elected representatives added a tax to something that a lot of people see as evil.  They should not have done this.♠
2. Issue 2 is about affordable housing.  The current approach is broken.  However, abolishing 40B is not the solution.  If we abolish 40B we will solve the smaller problem and open up, again, the larger economic problem that exists because of NIMBY attitudes, while the General Court hides from this problem.  Those outside the General Court who see the economic problems with affordable housing will focus their energy on fixing this problem, rather than moving on to other economic problems that need our attention—just look at the article in today's Boston Globe "Ideas" Section to see how we let a major opportunity slip through our fingers.  The fact is, if we are standing still we are slipping behind.  Too many of us have wanted to keep things the same, and thus we have been losing ground.
3. Issue 3 is about rolling back the income tax.  This is a freebee.  If this passes, the General Court will either ignore it or override it.  It is that simple.  The advantage of a yes vote is that it will send a signal to politicians that the voters want to reduce taxes, and thus reduce government spending.  Some will wish to just slash spending.  I think that is the wrong approach.  On the other hand, there are major changes to the operations in State Government that could save us a fair chunk of change.  It will mean laying off some Government workers, but the fact is that personnel cuts will be needed if we are to reduce the cost of Government.  This is not something ethically or morally wrong.  It is what we owe the taxpayers when it means a better use of the taxpayers' money.  On the other hand, personnel cuts will not solve our problems.  Don't let yourself be fooled.  Taking a new look at Government, based upon understanding the needs, values and responsibilities of each worker and section and department, summed up to each cabinet officer, will be needed to do better.  That and an understanding that rice bowls will need to be broken and some people will need to take on new responsibilities and divest themselves of old ones.

Good luck to all of us on Tuesday and fie on those who won't take the time to vote.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I do think that when the General Court is considering a tax increase on any goods the General Court should hold fire until the Commonwealth's Attorney General, in concert with the Treasurer and the Secretary of State, has submitted an economic report that talks to the consequences of the application of the tax, to include the soft avoidance of buying in New Hampshire and the hard avoidance of actual smuggling.

Williams vs Totenberg

It appears it isn't expressing your fear that gets you in trouble these days, it is who you are expressing fear of.  NPR News Analyst Juan Williams expressed fear of folks dressed as Muslims and being on the same airliner as himself.  Fired.  NPR News Analyst Nina Totenberg expressed fear of the American voters ("afraid, very afraid").  Move along, nothing to see here.  Here is a blog post that captured her comments.  And here is the line in question:

GORDON PETERSON:  Nina, columnist Paul Krugman says if the election goes as expected, his advice is be afraid, be very afraid.  Should we take his advice?

NINA TOTENBERG, NPR:  I am already afraid, very afraid.  I mean, it’s not like governance has been going great.  I think we’ll, I don't know whether I should be afraid, but there will be gridlock.

Actually, isn't gridlock good?

Well, as Boston Globe Columnist Joan Vennochi pointed out in today's offering, it is not just Juan Williams, but also White House Correspondent Helen Thomas, who got the pink slip for comments about Israel.  One wonders if Ms Vennochi has some insight here:

The back story on some of these recent firings is that management was long unhappy with these individuals, but didn’t have the guts to confront them.  That made them especially vulnerable.  When they ventured into controversial territory, there would be no mercy.

So, we may just be dealing with weak management.  But, weak management raises serious questions about the Board of Directors.

As a side issue, Ms Vennochi uses the term "Free Speech" regarding this subject.  Unless we are prepared to acknowledge that NPR is a Government instrument, the first amendment doesn't enter into it.  It was a contract between a private organization and an indivdual.  On the other hand, if we see NPR as a QUANGO, then it might be another story, but then NRP would be in violation of those laws that say the Government may not conduct propaganda against the American People.

Regards  —  Cliff

Feature or Bug?

Late yesterday afternoon, arriving at Mass, I was standing outside my wife's fancy Lincoln Zephyr, trying to lock it with the remote controller, when I ran into something new.  As I was locking the car the sun roof and the driver side window started to open.  I got back in and tried to close them, but had to put the key back in the ignition and turn it before anything would move.

After Mass I want back out to the car and tried a combination of remote control keys to see if I could duplicate the window opening.  I found that if I held the "unlock" button down for several seconds the sun roof and driver side window would open, even with the car locked.  What I didn't realize then, but found out a few seconds later, was that the passenger side window also opened. Thus I learned that I had left my iPad in a locked car with a window wide open.

I am thinking this is a feature, allowing one to let the warm air out of the car on a hot day without having to crawl in and turn the key in the ignition.  I like it.  But, it is not available, experimentation shows, on the lowly Mercury Montego.

Regards  —  Cliff

Cardinal Seán Blog

Our Cardinal, who said Mass at the Immaculate Conception Parish, here in Lowell on Saturday at 1600 (4:00 PM), said the following in his weekly EMail:

Dear friends, Thank you for your interest and support of this weekly email initiative. It is my hope that it will promote communication and connection among Catholics across the Archdiocese. I want to ask for your help in inviting every Catholic in the archdiocese with an email account to sign up for this weekly update. Please forward this email to friends, family members and fellow parishioners. Encourage them to sign up for this new weekly email at www.BostonCatholic.org. It only takes about 1 minute! May God bless you all,

Cardinal Seán

So, if you click the link you can sign up for the weekly input from the Local Ordinary.

As for the Mass today, it went well and the Children's "Lead You" Choir (as opposed to being a performing choir) did very well.

During the homily the Cardinal touched on the first reading (Wisdom 11:22-12:2), skipped the second and plunged into the third, from Luke (Luke 19:1-10), about Zacchaeus. As we remember, Zacchaeus is the evil tax collector, the traitor to his people and agent of Rome. (As my wife says, one of the first Sonderkommando.)

Jesus is coming to town and Zacchaeus wants to catch a look at him. Being "vertically challenged", in the Cardinal's words, he climbs a sycamore tree to get a better look.

The Cardinal talked about how the crowd was crowding out Zacchaeus. As the Cardinal noted, the crowd didn't like Zacheus. Not only was he a tax collector, but he was a rich tax collector. (Actually, he was a tax farmer, someone who had a franchise from the local Roman Administration to collect taxes for Rome and to take his expenses and profits out of the take. Total tax on the people was what Rome demanded plus whatever Zachous could extort.)

So, the Cardinal made the point that the "crowd" keeps people away from Jesus, but community helps bring us closer.

While Zacchaeus is up in the tree Jesus calls to him and says "Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house."

The Cardinal made the point that Jesus talks about money and material goods quite a bit and the point is that we need to learn to put them into perspective.  The rich young man was mentioned (e.g., Matthew 19:16-26).  He is the one who asked Jesus what he had to do to merit eternal life.  In the end Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor and come follow Him.  The rich young man was sad because he had so much.

So, my takeaway is that we need to strike for community, rather than just being a crowd and that we need to be wise in how we deal with our resources and, in particular, how we apply those resources.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the "Master of Ceremonies", the person who travels with the Cardinal Archbishop to help move things along before, during and after Mass.  In our case it was Father Robert Kickham, who is a late vocation, having worked in the world of finance down in Boston for quite a while. Father Kickham is a graduate of St John's Seminary.

I was very impressed with how Father Kickham worked with the five alter servers during Mass.  There were new additional duties for them, what with the crosier and the bishop's mitre and all.  Several other people mentioned this to me this morning.  When someone from outside the Parish shows up it is easy for chaos to rein, but Father Kickham kept it all smooth and low key.

Regards  —  Cliff

PRC and the Future

From Chet Nagle, writing for The Daily Caller, we have "Red Tide Rising".  The article is about the Peoples Republic of China stretching out its writ to include all the waters up to the local limits of other nations in the local area.

I think this is a little over the top in terms of the situation, but I do see China as being like Germany in the late 19th Century.

That article was from 6 September of this year.  Here is something from Saturday's Washington Post about Viet-nam strengthening its ties to the United States in light of China's muscle flexing.

This is not something to be relaxed about, but there is time for us—all of us—to work through this problem and have a solution that is different from that of August 1914.

Hat tip to GW.  (I wonder if Chet Nagle and GW are classmates from the Boat School?)

Regards  —  Cliff

Fix West Point?

"The Bateman", as he is known in some circles, Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bateman, offers up a comparison of West Point and ROTC.♠  The venue is the blog maintained by former Washington Post Reporter Tom Ricks.

I think it raises some interesting issues, and West Point, the US Military Academy, being one of our national institutions, deserves our attention.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Reserve Officer Training Corps, or Rot Crops, the source of large numbers of officers for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.  This is the formalization of the military tactics training requirement of the Morrell Act of 1861.

PI to RP to PH

The Manila Bulletin♠ has this little item on how officials in the Philippine Government are trying to change the shorthand RP (for Republic of the Philippines) to PH, to conform to "international standards":♥

Instead of using RP, which is the acronym for the Republic of the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and its Foreign Service Posts (FSPs) will now use the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) initials PH or PHL when referring to the Philippines.

This is in accordance with DFA Department Order No. 16-10 dated October 20 issued by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo which directed 67 Embassies, 23 Consulates General, and four Permanent Missions to use the initials PH or PHL.

Here is a more humorous take on this subject, from the same newspaper.

For those who ask, "Who cares?", I respond that I found it interesting and amusing.  For one thing, I meet the criteria to be a member of The Military Order of the Carabao, although I have been negligent in not filling out the paperwork.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The Manila Bulletin is now offering some of the news in 3D on its web site. 
♥  Are these the same "international standards" folks who want us to go metric, but can't figure out a metric clock or calendar?

MarylandDelaware Senate Race

UPDATE:  You know how once in a while you have a sense that something isn't exactly right, but then you let it slide?  In this case I did and I thank Renee Aste for sending me a note in the form of a comment.

I have been twice asked this week what I thought of the Christine O'Donnell / Chris Coons contest in MarylandDelware.  This is Vice President Joe Biden's former seat.

Both times I was asked for my opinion I went with the conventional wisdom—Ms O'Donnell will lose.

One person asked me if I was commenting from the point of view of trying to govern or from the joy of the game and I admitted that in fact, I do enjoy politics and the ups and downs that go with it.

But, back to Ms O'Donnell.  I see her as the bellwether. If she pulls it out, it will likely mean an "extinction event" for the Democrats in Congress.  If Ms O'Donnell wins, than, I would think that a lot of seats will change hands.

But, that said, I think that Sharon Angle is going to beat Harry Reid whatever the outcome in MarylandDelaware.  For some reason I am interested in that race.  Probably it is because once again someone who was dismissed early on by the (dare I say it?) elites has done a pretty good job battling the incumbent.  In fact, though, Sharon Angle was not the unknown grandmother she was portrayed as.  Taking on the State Governor over an issue of constitutionality while in the state legislature is not ingénue league action.

As for local predictions, I am thinking.

Regards  —  Cliff

Traffic Pattern Changes

Sticking to the Phoenix theme, if one is Southbound on Route 38/Rogers Street and comes up on the traffic light at Phoenix Avenue / Douglas Road, one finds that the traffic pattern, after restriping, has changed.  Before resurfacing and the repainting the road widened, Southbound (toward I-495 and Tewksbury), into two lanes, both of which could go forward.  Now, the Number 1 lane (left lane) is a mandatory left turn lane.

I wonder where that came from?

Will my safety be enhanced by this change?  Will idlying, consuming gas, be reduced?  Will traffic revert back to what people are used to, even before the left turn arrow weathers to invisible?

Regards  —  Cliff

Thanks, Sam

Keeping the history alive, Renee Aste has short post linking to The Phoenix about the Sam Meas campaign.  I am really pleased that Sam Meas elected to run and I was proud to have his bumper sticker on my car.

Thanks, Sam.

Regards  —  Cliff

Not Good

Well, not good for NPR.  Good for a sense that across the fruited plain we are interested in people for who they are, for the "content of their character".  From Politico.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

College Costs Down?

This article in The Washington Post seems a little misleading in the first few paragraphs.  It says that the cost of college is lower, but then attributes that to more student aid.  That is great for those getting state aid, but not so much for the rest of the world.

The other item that should be worrisome is this:

Tuition and fees rose 7.9 percent between 2009 and 2010 at public universities for in-state students and 4.5 percent for private four-year nonprofit colleges, according to the annual report Trends in College Pricing, released Thursday.

One would hope that the states would be working to keep the cost of their higher education lower.

The article was written by Mr Daniel de Vise.

Regards  —  Cliff

Campaign Money

This stuck me as interesting.  From all the talk I thought it was the opposite.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Cost of College

The chart at this post is sickening.  I say that because I purchase college textbooks, and usually two sets, one for my wife and one for myself.  In addition, my daughter is frequently asking me to buy her this or that math textbook.

The cost of textbooks is flat-out expensive.  The cost is so high that one wonders if there is some sort of market distortion.  One wonders why Rep Barney Frank has not looked into this.

But, never fear, the US Department of Justice has stepped in and stopped the use of Kindle books, getting Universities to stop experimenting with that cheaper alternative, at least until Amazon provides more "blind friendly" features.  And, funnily enough, when I wander through the book store on the South Campus, or the North, or downtown, I don't see prominent displays of devices to make books on paper easier for the handicapped to use.  It must be hidden somewhere.  In the mean time, a chance to run a little test flight of adapting a new technology to an old problem has been derailed because it is not yet ready to meet the needs of everyone in the nation.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  In "labeling" this post I thought about "Administration", but I think the PC approach to squashing initiative is more of a perennial problem in the District of Columbia than something unique to the current Administration.

When Does A Given War End?

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a shootout that occurred at about 3 P.M. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

Here is an interesting paragraph from Wikipedia:

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral has been portrayed in numerous Western films.  It has come to symbolize the struggle between law-and-order and open-banditry and rustling in frontier towns of the Old West, where law enforcement was often weak or simply nonexistent. In other views, the fight was a more complex embodiment of some of the tensions of the American Civil War of a generation before.  One group of fighters represented rural Democrats from Texas who were involved in the cattle-trade in a remote area of Arizona territory which had been desert just a few years before.  The other faction (the Earps) had come from the East with the frontier, and represented the very different city interests of Yankee Republican capitalists and businessmen who were attempting to manage a silver-mining boom-town with Eastern expectations of behavior.  The gunfight occurred on the physical border of these two cultures.

Does this reflect, in some way, what is happening between the idea of Islam as represented by al Qaeda and those values that emerged from the Western Christian tradition?  Maybe some wars just go underground for a while and then spring up when different cultures find that they clash in new circumstances.

Regards  —  Cliff

Why is Barack Obama being nice to Michael Bloomberg?

From the blog of Law Professor Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

The New Elite?

Dr Arnold Kling, writing in the blog Library of Economics and Liberty takes issue with an article in last Sunday's Washington Post about the "New Elite".  The Instapundit links to this article.

The basis for this critique is this article by Dr Charles Murray (yes, that Charles Murray♠) in this last Sunday's Washington Post.  The title of the article, "The tea party warns of a New Elite.  They're right." is not really related to the article, but goes with The Washington Post theme of the day, which is Tea Parties.♥  Here is a long quote from the article by Dr Murray:

One of the easiest ways to make the point is to start with the principal gateway to membership in the New Elite, the nation's most prestigious colleges and universities.  In the idealized view of the meritocrats, those schools were once the bastion of the Northeastern Establishment, favoring bluebloods and the wealthy, but now they are peopled by youth from all backgrounds who have gained admittance through talent, pluck and hard work.

That idealized view is only half-right.  Over the past several decades, elite schools have indeed sought out academically talented students from all backgrounds.  But the skyrocketing test scores of the freshman classes at Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other elite schools in the 1950s and 1960s were not accompanied by socioeconomic democratization.

On the surface, it looks as if things have changed. Compared with 50 years ago, the proportion of students coming from old-money families and exclusive prep schools has dropped.  The representation of African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans has increased.  Yet the student bodies of the elite colleges are still drawn overwhelmingly from the upper middle class. According to sociologist Joseph Soares's book "The Power of Privilege:  Yale and America's Elite Colleges," about four out of five students in the top tier of colleges have parents whose income, education and occupations put them in the top quarter of American families, according to Soares's measure of socioeconomic status. Only about one out of 20 such students come from the bottom half of families.

The discomfiting explanation is that despite need-blind admissions policies, the stellar applicants still hail overwhelmingly from the upper middle class and above.  Students who have a parent with a college degree accounted for only 55 percent of SAT-takers this year but got 87 percent of all the verbal and math scores above 700, according to unpublished data provided to me by the College Board.  This is not a function of SAT prep courses available to the affluent -- such coaching buys only a few dozen points -- but of the ability of these students to do well in a challenging academic setting.

Far from spending their college years in a meritocratic melting pot, the New Elite spend school with people who are mostly just like them -- which might not be so bad, except that so many of them have been ensconced in affluent suburbs from birth and have never been outside the bubble of privilege.  Few of them grew up in the small cities, towns or rural areas where more than a third of all Americans still live.

But, to Dr Kling's critique:

I am going to disagree with the thrust of Murray's article, which is that the problem of the elite is that they are out of touch with much of America.  I think instead that the problem is that those in the elite who go into politics believe that they know more than they really do.  In my view, we are in a "cycle of failure," in which policies fail, political leaders respond by usurping more power ("we need to strengthen regulation"), failures get worse, more power gets usurped, etc.
Murray continues,

I doubt if there is much to differentiate the staff of the conservative Weekly Standard from that of the liberal New Republic, or the scholars at the American Enterprise Institute from those of the Brookings Institution, or Republican senators from Democratic ones.

I fear that this is true.  The fight is mostly over who gets to hold the reins of power. Restructuring our political system to reduce the concentration of power is a fringe idea. 
I was reminded of its fringiness when I spoke several days ago on the themes of Unchecked and Unbalanced. The audience consisted of members of the conservative elite, and the reception was polite bafflement.

Admittedly, I may have been responsible for some of the bafflement. Before the talk, I kept revising it, without coming up with a truly satisfying outline.  But what the audience wanted to hear (and what they got from most of the other speakers) was a message that once the Republican establishment is back in power, all will be well. There is no way that I could have said that.

Ah, now we see the Tea Party point of view come to the fore.  "A pox on both their houses."

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  He, the co-author of The Bell Curve, that controversial sociological examination of
♥  On the other hand, headline writers are their own little group, locked in a broom closet and not relating to the larger area of journalism or the world itself and just passing puns back and forth amongst themselves.

Wikileaks as Astroturf?

We know there is now dissension within Wikileaks, the web site that allows "whistle blowers" from all nations to make classified documents from different governments available to the public.  Here is a link to the British newspaper, The Independent, which has an article on this internal Wikileaks problem.

But, the more interesting question is if Wikileaks is really a tool to help validate the new George W Bush book coming out?  That is a possibility being floated by the blogger Instapundit, who notes that some of the documents recently released debunk the Lancet study on deaths in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (600% off the mark—too high).  He also notes that WMD—chemical weapons♠—continued to be found in Iraq long after the initial fighting ended.

I didn't think that this is the case, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility.  It is a strange world out there.  Of course I don't think former President George W Bush created Wikileaks, but it is possible that the Wikileaks founder is fairly even-handed and thinks that President Bush deserves the same fair shake that everyone else gets.  Or maybe that is just how the facts sort out—how the cookie crumbles.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I never thought Chemical Weapons should be part of the definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction, but in about 1990 we accepted that definition then being pushed by the then Soviet Union.

NPR Story Continues

Blogger and Law Professor Ann Althouse talks to the Juan Williams issue.  With video.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Tea Party

Early in the morning, today's Washington Post headlined an article on the Tea Party Movement.

Aside from twice trying to portray the Tea Party Movement as racist, the article did a pretty good job of describing the Tea Party phenomenon.

But a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process.

The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every tea party group in the nation, an unprecedented attempt to understand the network of individuals and organizations at the heart of the nascent movement.

In fact, one of the people they contacted is Lowell resident and Greater Lowell Tea Party leader Barbara Klain.  Barbara told me:

Yes, I did answer some questions by telephone.

When I was interviewed I mentioned that although fiscal responsibility on the part of the individual and the government is, I believe, a common thread, tea parties across the nation differ greatly because each one reflects the concerns and needs of the local population.  If we were to become organized under one national umbrella we would lose the immediacy that makes us click.

As the last statement says, we exist "to educate members and encourage them to become active on their own."  This year, I plan to pursue the education theme.  Between election pushes, I hope to educate our group about the Constitution and to show one or two films that I think are important.

So, while many think the Tea Party Movement is the tool of larger secretive movement, but The Washington Post article suggests it is just what Tea Party members have been saying—it is a series of grass-roots organizations springing from individual frustration with the direction of government.

As for the suggestions of racism put forward in the article, all I can talk to is our local situation.  The members of the Great Lowell Tea Party came to a consensus on backing Sam Meas in his race for the Republican nomination to run against Representative Niki Tsongas.  Money was given, registration efforts were made and signs and bumper stickers were displayed.

It does seem to me that part of the issue of what The Washington Post refers to as racism is really questions about who President Barack Obama really is and where he wants to take us, as a nation.  The two things should not be confused, least we cause confusion.

Racism is wrong!  Let us be clear on that.  And, as our nation's Attorney General has told us, we need to talk about race.

But, that is not what the Tea Party exists for.  The Tea Party is concern for Government financial stability on the part of folks approaching or at retirement.  Sure, there are young folks in the movement, but the it is the older folks who are driving the agenda, at least here in the Lowell area.  We are just lucky to have a young woman like Barbara Klain ramrodding our outfit.

If you liked this Wash Post article you might consider asking your local convenience store owner about making a fuss about the fact that the newspaper no longer makes it this far north on Sundays.

If you are interesting in the Great Lowell Tea Party, contact me or call Barbara Klain.

Regards  —  Cliff

Afghanistan

Friday AM I was sitting around with some of my more "liberal" associates, working issues regarding homelessness, when homeless veterans came up.♠  The subject of war followed and all the killing that goes on.  So, I asked if we should pull out of Afghanistan.  The consensus was that we should.  So, as I was reading Bob Woodward's new book, Obama's Wars this afternoon I was struck by this line:

"I think Afghanistan is doable, it's not sellable," Harvey concluded.♥

The context behind the quote is that it was made by a Derek Harvey, a then 54-year-old retired Army Colonel of Intelligence and now a DIA analyst, who was working on a review of Afghanistan initiated by the Bush Administration and winding up as the Obama Team was taking over.

And, that is the question.  Are you buying Afghanistan?

An even better question would be "What is our strategic objective in Afghanistan?"

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Actually, I am the classic liberal and they are all more along the line of Fabian Socialists.  I mean that in the nicest possible way.
♥  16% of the way through, toward the end of Chapter 7.

The Pledge of Allegiance

From Don Surber we have a report on a League of Women Voters debate where someone asked about saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  The original source of this story is here.

The nice thing is that here we have a comment on the original post by Mr Shurber by the person who started "the problem", a fellow citizen, one who was born in Peru, and served ten years in the US Air Force Reserve, who asked about the Pledge and was surprised when it was not part of the program.  The People, in the auditorium, made up for that omission by saying the Pledge spontaneously.  I think that is nice.

At one level I don't care.  Having twice taken an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States I figure that I had pledged my allegiance to these United States and repeating it won't make it any stronger.  That said, I see great value in school children doing it every day until it becomes ingrained.

On the other hand, a large number of our fellow citizens tend to expect the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, be it at a VFW meeting or the local School Committee or some other common venue with a slightly patriotic flavor.  At a Tea Party Rally would not be inappropriate.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Christians in the Middle East

This week's On Line Newsletter from the Local Ordinary includes a link to this Boston Pilot article on the situation for Christians born and living in the Holy Land.  It is not a pretty picture.  As some may already know, the Christian population in the Middle East is going down, as a combination of restrictions in the areas they live combine with opportunities for emigration.

And, this morning there was a breaking article in The International Herald Tribune on the end of a Vatican Synod of Bishops from the Middle East.  I found the article on the Herald Trib web site and then I couldn't, but I had saved the URL on my iPad, so I was able to back track to it.  Funny, that.

Bishops from the Middle East who were summoned to Rome by the pope demanded Saturday that Israel accept U.N. resolutions calling for an end to its "occupation" of Arab lands.

In a final joint communique, the bishops also told Israel it shouldn't use the Bible to justify "injustices" against the Palestinians.

Do we think that the item in The Boston Pilot and the announcement were coordinated?  From what I know about large bureaucracies, I would doubt it, but this is one that has survived for centuries.

But, back to the issue, Christians in the Middle East get the short end of the stick.  While some worry that News Analyst Juan Williams may have offended Muslims in the US, Christians in the Middle East suffer from continuing indignities at the hands of many sides.

While my natural tendency is to think that religion is a surrogate for tribal divisions around the world, divisions having to do with family ties, albeit very extended, the fact that it is such a surrogate indicates that in many places we are still not yet playing with a full deck of compassion for our fellow human beings.

Regards  —  Cliff

DOJ and the NBPP in Philly

Over at The Washington Post we have an article in the Friday paper on the Justice Department and how it has dealt with the alleged voter intimidation in Philly in the 2008 General Election.  The title of the article is "Dispute over New Black Panthers case causes deep divisions".

Per the WashPost the case against the alleged perps is not quite as clear-cut as some have suggested, but still, as a voting citizen, I am not happy with the attitude I am hearing exists in the Department of Justice regarding this issue.  I count on the DOJ to be honest and to clean up its act when it finds that it has stumbled.  I was heartened when the new Attorney General, Eric Holder, told us we needed an honest conversation about race in this nation.  The conduct of this investigation does not encourage me that we are heading in the proper direction.

Regards  —  Cliff

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Apologizes to Juan Williams

Law Professor Ann Althouse (she voted for Obama two years ago) says the following:

Apologize?  You can't just apologize unless Williams could just apologize. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller must resign.♠

Then, below the video of NPR CEO Vivian Schiller she has this comment:

And don't you just love the notion that ordinary human feelings are mental disorders that should be kept hidden?  In NPR's delightful vision of the future, no one will dare to speak about how they feel and every inappropriate twinge that breaks through your self-protective numbness will be medicalized and treated.  Imagine a country that adopts a psychiatric treatment model for political dissent.

Then, after the comment about imagining "a country that adopts a psychiatric treatment model for political dissent" she has a link to a New York Times article from thirteen and a half years ago.  For those of you who haven't guest, it talks about the Soviet Union.

All my adult life I have been hearing about how I need to get my feelings out and share them—something men didn't do when I was a young man.  Now I find that it is not something humans should be doing, except with their shrink or their publicist.  I have neither.  I am wondering if it is OK to share my feelings with my wife?

But, back to the main issue, yes, if Ann Althouse is calling for your resignation it is time to go.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Remember, NPR CEO, Ms Vivian Schiller, suggested in public and on video that the comment for which News Analyst Juan Williams was allegedly canned was something he should have shared with his shrink, or his publicist.

Palin Myths

Here is the take of "Neo-Neocon"♠ regarding former VP Candidate Sarah Palin and her comment telling Tea Party folks that it wasn't yet time to “party like it’s 1773”.  It turns out that Blogger Markos Moulitsas♥  doesn't know his American History.

So, Palin 1, Kos 0 based upon this dust-up.

Then we have this item from The Washington Post, where the author talks about five (5) myths about Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin is the most polarizing politician to come forward since Richard Nixon.  But, that doesn't mean she can't get elected.  I have to admit that the first time Tricky Dick ran for President I voted for HHH, the Happy Warrior, but the second time I voted for RMN, since I couldn't bring myself to vote for Senator George McGovern (I had been hoping the Democrats would nominate Senator Scoop Jackson for President and Shirley Chisholm for VP, but it was not to be).

It would be a mistake to count Sarah Palin out.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The person is supposed to be a New England-based blogger.
♥  The Daily Kos.

When Do We Need a Political Party?

From time to time Kad Barma talks about the problem with political parties, and there are a lot of problems.  Our first President, George Washington, was against them.  But, as things have evolved, so have political parties.

Thus, I pose a question.  Given what it takes to win an election, both in terms of money and manpower, at what point does it go from a thousand candidates sailing their own course to those thousand forming up in convoys to achieve better results?

The chart below is very notional.  The line marked "A" is what I see as some sort of minimal number.  Even someone running for State Rep in Lowell, with no opponent (Say, David Nangle) has himself or herself plus someone who is the Commonwealth mandated Campaign Treasurer.  The "B" line represents a more generous staff.

So, what do you think?

Thanks

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  I used the "Compose" option to do this post, since I can't load images via "Edit HTML".  I am waiting on Google to fix this problem.

This Just In

My eldest son is on the phone and he told me that National Public Radio has fired Juan Williams.  Without knowing the "facts", don't you just "know" that they were looking for an excuse, since he has become so associated with Fox News?

For the record, I LIKE Juan Williams.  I hope Fox gives him his own show.

UPDATE:  Here, via Inspapundit, is one view on the firing and the reason discussed.

Regards  —  Cliff

Voting Alternative

Here is an interesting idea—if the top vote getter is "None of the Above" they redo the election.  A tad expensive, but it allows, in cases where the majority of registered voters think the available choices are lame, to actually impact the election.  If this were implemented there would be consequences.

Hat tip to Instapundit

Regards  &mash;  Cliff

There Are Differences

Kad Barma holds the position that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between our two political parties, but here is a discussion of a place where there is a difference.  This is an analysis of something Law Professor Glenn Reynolds (the Instapundit) sent out, apparently via EMail.  The analysis is done by one of the Chicago Boyz, David Foster.

The blog title sums it up, "Congressional and Voter Attitudes Toward Israel".

I think the third comment goes to the heart of why we might care.  Today we have a horrible balance in the Middle East, and it is unstable.  However, if the balance finally tips one way or the other things will get truly ugly.  The best case scenario is that millions of people will be displaced.♠  The worse case scenario is that millions of people will die.  They are not playing bean bag out there.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  And which nation is the nation of choice for taking in those fleeing Genocide?  This is a fill-in-the-blank test question.

Talking Past Each Other?

Law Professor Ann Althouse comments here on the O'Donnell-Coons debate at Widener University Law School.  (Delaware Senate Race for the seat formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden.)

She is a bit steamed, both at people who don't listen and at the MSM, which doesn't provide good quotes from the discussion:

It's a bit annoying to me, because I cannot stand when people jump to the conclusion that someone they want to believe is stupid is being stupid when they say something that seems wrong.  Think first.  Is it wrong?

And I hate the converse — the assumption that the supposedly smart person has said something smart.  Stop.  Slow down.  Read/listen closely.  It's often the case that what we have is a banal political disagreement.  And that's what I think this O'Donnell/Coons thing is.

I really wish I had the verbatim transcript of the colloquy, and that's the main reason I've been dragging my feet posting on this.  The reporters aren't presenting the quotes in a reliable fashion.  And we need to begin with stark clarity that the text of the Establishment Clause is:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

I suspect most of us can't fully articulate what the First Amendment says, since it says a lot:♠

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  My number one exception being writer Nat Hentoff, whose column occasionally appears in The Lowell Sun.

School Choice

Here, via Instapundit is a video talking about Arizona's Choice Program for children going to school.  The ACLU has hauled Arizona into court over this, taking it to the Arizona Supreme Court and then to the Ninth Circuit Court.  Now it goes to the US Supreme Court.

Regards  —  Cliff

The World Turned Upside Down

Before we go to sleep tonight, here is a little note on the Battle of Yorktown.  Today represents the anniversary of "The World Turned Upside Down".♠

From the article in The Washington Post, first link above:

Major combat operations in the American Revolution ended 229 years ago on Oct. 19, at Yorktown. For that we can thank the fortitude of American forces under George Washington, the siegecraft of French troops of Gen. Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the count of Rochambeau - and the relentless bloodthirstiness of female Anopheles quadrimaculatus mosquitoes.

Back in the old days, including the Civil War and the Spanish American War, disease was the big killer of service members, not the bullets and shrapnel of the other side.  And, if you were wounded, tetanus might well kill you, even if the wound was not, of and in itself, life threatening.  In the Civil War, those wounded left out in the open fared better than those taken into barns for protection from the elements.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The ballad played by the British Band as it marched off the field of battle.  Well, purists say we don't know that for certain, but I like the story and will continue to pass it on.

Fair is Fair

Over at the Blog Gates of Vienna we have a post on the building of a Mosque in Tromsø, Norway.  Turns out that the Norwegian Government, using a quirk in the law, has said that the Mosque proposed for Tromsø can be built once a Christian Church is built in Saudi Arabia, a major source of funding for the Tromsø Mosque.

Regards  —  Cliff

This is a Puzzlement

Here are thoughts on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell court ruling and appeal thereof.♠

From a Blog at Columbia Law School we have additional comments.

From the footnotes of the Government's appeal we have this:

As the President has stated previously, the Administration does not support the DADT statute as a matter of policy and strongly supports its repeal.  However, the Department of Justice has long followed the practice of defending federal statutes as long as reasonable arguments can be made in support of their constitutionality, even if the Administration disagrees with a particular statute as a policy matter, as it does here.

I like the idea that the Executive, under the Take Care Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Art. II, Sec. 3, Clause 4 ) defends the laws passed by Congress.  It is a nice and tidy way of doing things.  But, there is precedent for not doing so, as the first linked Blogger, above, shows.

I do understand the Senate wishing to wait for the report from the Secretary of Defense, due out on 1 December.  I hope that with the report in hand they will move quickly to make this go away, and in so doing will make the appropriate adjustments to the UCMJ.  I am not into make-work projects for lawyers and judges based upon Congress not getting the paperwork straight.

Both links are via Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Note that the first link has a quote from a local; former Gov Jane Swift's running mate, Patrick Guerriero, whose organization initiated the original lawsuit in question.

Trouble is Brewing in the Far Pacific

Note the top article, which talks to Japan's opposition party reacting to China's actions regarding the most recent incident at sea over fishing rights and territorial waters and spheres of influence.  It seems that things will be unsettled for a while out there, as China sorts out who it is and how powerful it is.  This will slowly suck in the US.  Once we move out of Iraq and Afghanistan and the Philippines we will still need a strong Navy and Air Force.  The other option is to abandon Japan and South Korea and Taiwan to their own devices, which in the case of Japan may well include nuclear devices.

Regards  —  Cliff

"Magic" Numbers

In today's "Week in Review" in The New York Times Daniel Gilbert, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard, writes about how some numbers seem to be assumed to have magical properties.  In writing the article he shows how we make subtle and sometimes subliminal assumptions about things because of our fascination with the numbers seven and ten (as well as other numbers).♠

Professor Gilbert attributes the selection of a seven day week to the Emperor Constantine, for his having reduced the Roman week from eight to seven.  He then notes that the Soviets went to a five day week, which they then upped to a six-day week.  The French went for a ten-day week.♥  In the case of France this makes sense as they were attempting to create metrification.  However, much as they tried, they failed in making time, the most important measurement, something that could be broken down into tens.  If they had succeeded, then the whole metric system might have made sense.

But, back to who invented the seven day week, I always figured it was back further than Emperor Constantine.  Moses attributes it to G_d.  In Genesis, Chapter 2, Verses 1-3, we have:

Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing, he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.

But, then nothing is real until the secular state has said it is real.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I admit to a strong preference for four, or even two, over the number three.
♥  In both of these cases this makes sense as Revolutionary Governments attempt to remake the world.  And, as the author wryly notes, the French then went on to invent the 60-day vacation.

No More Helium Filled Balloons

Forget "Peak Oil".  It looks like we are running out of Helium, the second most common element in the universe.  So says an article in The Washington Post this last week.

At the current rate of usage, "the world would run out in 25 years, plus or minus five years," Robert Richardson, a Cornell University physicist who won a Nobel Prize in 1996 for his work with superfluid helium, told a gathering of Nobel laureates in August.

Then what do we do?

Regards  —  Cliff

Condi Rice Goes to the White House

This gives me some hope, after a week of not good news from and about the White House.  Condi Rice had a visit with the President.  I like Ms Condolezza Rice.  Back in the day, she was an Intern in the office next to mine in the Pentagon.  She was approachable and knowledgeable.

The fact that she and the President met and talked is, in my mind good.  It says that he is getting alternative views.  The fact that the discussion didn't leak is also good news.  A little discipline is always a good thing.

Quoting from the article:

Asked to grade his foreign policy, she refused.

"I've said very many times that I may not agree with everything that the administration has done, but I also know that it's a lot harder in there than it is out here," she said.

"Nobody needs to have people who've been there chirping at you about what you're not doing right, because you can't possibly know the whole range of considerations on any given day unless you're in."

I also thought it was interesting that her new book also comes in a "young adult" version.

Regards  —  Cliff

Blogger Software Updates

Am I the only one who has found the updates to the Blogger "Edit HTML" Posting screen to be less than satisfactory?

For example, no longer do options for misspelled words come up.  When your spelling is as bad as mine this is a bad thing.

And where are the tools for adding photos and videos?  And why can't we attach PDFs and Word Documents?  For me this improvement was a definite step backwards.  Maybe those who use the "Compose" tab have found it to be a roaring success.  I wish them well.

In the mean time, where do I go to tell Google about my problems and complaints?

Regards  —  Cliff

Conflicting Signs

Last evening, about 1015, I was on French Street and just shy of the light that allows foot traffic between the High School and the parking garage, when I saw a new "traffic control" device in the middle of the street.  It was a narrow vertical sign telling me to yield to people in the cross-walk.  I learned to drive in California, so I find such signs superfluous.  But, in addition, in this location I find it a contradiction.

If the light controls when to stop for pedestrians, should not the pedestrians wait for their signal to proceed?  If they wait, why the sign in the road?  If, however, the idea is for pedestrians to be able to cross at will, why the traffic light?

Or, alternatively, is this just part of our "feel good" culture, where we do things because we think they are good and don't ask ourselves about the unintended consequences.  Here the unintended consequences might include a growing lack of respect for traffic lights and traffic laws.  Another might be a waste of electricity and supplies maintaining the traffic lights.

And, this is not the only such discordant setup in our fair city.  On Market Street, at the intersection with Palmer, we have the same situation—a traffic light and signs in the middle of the street reminding us to yield to peds, who apparently don't have to obey the traffic control devices.

Regards  —  Cliff

Happy Thanksgiving

To our Canadian friends.  I might have missed it, except for picking up CBC 2 while passing NE of Cleveland, Ohio, this afternoon.

And Happy Columbus Day to the rest of us.

Regards  —  Cliff

Poor Taste

I thought that this item in The Lowell Sun about a local board endorsing a particular candidate showed that the board acted in bad taste.  All quite legal.

That said, I wonder what their backup plan is if their endorsed candidate loses?  Lose?  Couldn't comprehend such a thing in our Commonwealth.

Regards  —  Cliff

Georgetown and the Education Bubble

An article in The Washington Post today.  Georgetown University resists.

Regards  —  Cliff

Quote of the Day

Someone, commenting on the new Bob Woodward book, Obama's Wars quipped:

Great people talk about ideas.
   Average people talk about things.
      Small people talk about other people.

Author:  Unknown

Regards  —  Cliff

Nanny and Her Lawyer

Out in California there is a little dustup over an illegal immigrant as maid for a candidate for public office.

Given the way this has been playing out, including Gloria Allred on the Greta van Susteren show (On The Record) on Fox News Channel, I thought this was a great comment:

I’m perfectly happy to let Nicky Diaz stay in the US, if we can deport Gloria Allred, instead.

The person making the comment is a blogger out in the Sunshine State, Dale Franks.

Hat tip to Errol Phillips, down in Sarasota, who either picked this up directly or via the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

RAF Hero of WWII Passes On

Here is an interesting article and another indication that the survivors of WWII are slowing going off to their reward.  The source is The Washington Post.

Per the story, Fighter Pilot John C Freeborn, flew more combat hours during the Battle of Britain than any other RAF pilot.  That battle, a campaign really, was ongoing 70 years ago and reaching its climactic point at the end of October.♠  And, when WWII was all over he doffed his uniform and went into the soda pop business.

Most of the article is spent talking about the fact that his first kill was an RAF Hurricane.

Note the comment about shooting "pheasant in his spare time".  Doing that he was developing his sense of relative motion and learning how to get a kill.  The gyro stabilized gunsight did not become available until after the Battle of Britain.  Until then the pilot was the computer that considered target motion and bullet drop and the other variables.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The British view is the Battle of Britain lasted from 10 July to 31 October 1940.  The German view is that it started later and lasted longer.

Here is Some Good News

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the First World War, the War to End All Wars, will officially end on Sunday, when the last repatriation payment comes due and is paid.

The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.

Germany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.

But, deep down in side you history buffs must realize that since WWI was about the breakup of three empires, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, and since that breakup is still going on, the war hasn't really ended.  Sure, the Austro-Hungarian breakup may have finally ended with the sorting out of the former Yugoslavia, but don't bet on it.  And, the Ottoman Empire is still having rumbles, like in Iraq and Palestine.  And Russia is still sorting through its own Empire.

Regards  —  Cliff

Is the Past a More Polite Country?

Last evening my wife and I watch most of the Spike Lee movie Miracle at St. Anna on our TV.  We missed the first part of it, which meant that we didn't catch the initial hook, but frankly, I think it was better coming in late and then reasoning back.

After the movie my wife and I had a discussion of two issues.  One was the language used in the movie.  Foul language, as we used to say.  My wife thought that perhaps people didn't use such course language in common conversation.  I argued that the "F-Word" was in common use by people in the Service in World War II.  If we check we find that catch phrases such as FUBAR ([Fouled] Up Beyond All Recognition) and SNAFU (Situation Normal, All [Fouled] Up) are listed on Wikipedia and cited back to WWII.

I think the difference is that back in the day one was careful about saying the "F-Work" in front of one's Mother.  As I recall, the expression is "Once you say ____ in front of your Mother you can never take it back."  Words to live by.

The other question was the degree of racism in the US Army in WWII.  It was a Spike Lee movie, which made it edgy.  On the other hand, from reading Dr Alan L Gropman's book♠ on the Integration of the Air Force, I remember that the Air Force had two projects going forward during WWII, one being fielding Black fighter pilots and the other being fielding a Black bomber capability.  The fighter program, which we know as the Tuskegee Airmen went forward to a roaring success.  We don't often hear about the bomber operation.  The reason is that it was a failure, in that the aircrews and aircraft never deployed overseas.  Dr Gropman attributes this failure to the fact that the White commander of this operation became confused as to his mission.  He seemed to think that it was maintaining segregation, rather than building a combat unit.  So, yes, it is fair to say that there was a lot of racism during WWII.  It probably shouldn't have been that way, but President Woodrow Wilson set back the integration of the Armed Forces by a quarter of a century.

Good film.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Or maybe it was from a lecture he gave on the issue, which I caught somewhere.

Looking at the Future, Via the Past

Professor Victor Davis Hanson has comments on things we believe which may not be true.

From time to time I stop and wonder how the unbelievable can become the accepted. Let me list four arbitrary, but still representative, examples of what I mean.

1)  Embracing unworkable statism.

All this goes on as Obama sees the EU running away from precisely what he wishes to implement, while at home a high-tax, high-entitlement, redistributive economy like California has managed to destroy the most richly endowed human and natural landscape — agriculture, tourism, high-tech, oil and gas, Hollywood, Napa Valley, Silicon Valley — in the nation. And yet here we continue down into the abyss.

2)  Higher education.

At some point, all this cannot go on, and we will have the academic version of September 15, 2008 — as parents no longer choose to take on $200,000 in debt to send their children to 4-year liberal arts schools, in which they will be likely indoctrinated that they should oppose the very American institutions that created the wealth and freedom that fuel their colleges and pay their faculties.

3)  Technology.

The strange thing is that none of this has been quite factored into fossilized metrics that supposedly quantify the standard of living, poverty rates, GDP, etc.  In the grocery line not long ago, two teens were chatting in Spanish to relatives by iPhone in distant Mexico.  Are they impoverished or enjoying a privilege exclusive to royalty just forty years ago?

4.  The Plutocratic party?

Are we to believe that prep-schooled and Ivy Leagued millionaire Barack Obama is the blue-collar face of the Democratic Party, while one of twelve children John Boehner is some sort of J.P. Morgan insider rich man?

To get the full flavor of it you have to read it, as Paul Marion might note.

Regards  —  Cliff

Radical Republican

Well, here is an idea for honor a real radical Republican.

But, then each of us in the Republican Party has to pick his or her own heroes.  On the other hand, that should be part of what being a Republican means—picking your own heroes.

Regards  —  Cliff

Those "Tea Party" (Like) Crowds

From over at the Althouse Blog we have some observations about the crowd at President Obama's speech at UW (at Madison), earlier in the week.  Basicaly it is about the fact that the crown in attendance looks like what the mainstream media and Democrats say a Tea Party gathering looks like—very "white".

Regards  —  Cliff

"Nonpartisan Rally"

In today's "Political Notebook" we have an item on a "nonpartisan rally" to be held at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, 2 October.

From the item in The Boston Globe we have this:

Organizers say more than 400 organizations — ranging from labor unions to faith, environmental and gay rights groups — are coming together to advocate for job creation, quality education, and justice.

And then this:

Although organizers describe the rally as nonpartisan, they also hope to raise awareness of their concerns before political contests that are expected to sweep out many Democrats.

So what makes a rally "nonpartisan"?  Speaking of the Glenn Beck rally last month the newspaper of record for the hub of the universe says:

Though also billed as nonpolitical, the rally was widely viewed as a protest against the policies of President Obama and Democrats.

So, it would seem that if the rally is by "progressives" it is "nonpartisan".  And they are going to charge us in good hard Yankee dollars for this kind of thing starting next year?

UPDATE:  As Kad Barma correctly notes in his comment (Comment 1), the on-line headline no longer has the headline "Nonpartisan rally set for Lincoln Memorial" but rather now reads "Activists to hold rally for progressive policies", although the tagline that come up does come up on my Safari Browser still says, on the tab, "Nonpartisan rally set for Lincoln...". I say kudos to The Globe on-line editors to picking up their initial mistake and trying to correct it.

Regards  —  Cliff

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ♠

Over at Slate you can read the "Daily Dose" from "Doonsbury".  I thought today's♥ was pretty good.

In a lot of ways, at least in foreign policy, "Hope and Change" IS more of the same.  In fact, in the area of national security/homeland security we are finding that the current administration is not showing much more regard for civil rights than the last administration.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The more things change, the more they stay the same
♥  If you read this on any day but 1 October 2010 you will have to search back to find the particular strip referenced.

Information Wants to be Free

Over at The Boston Globe we have Columnist Brian McGrory writing about the phrase "information wants to be free".  He uses that expression to mock the idea that newspapers can continue to provide content to the public on the web without charging for it.

Seriously, for the better part of the last decade, every high-brow thinker in the new media business has condescendingly repeated a phrase that is somehow as insidious as it is inane: Information wants to be free.

However, he understands the phrase differently from myself.  I take it to mean that information wants to burst out from behind firewalls and spread itself out for all to see.  And, apparently I don't fully understand it, at least per the Wikipedia definition, to be found here.  And, the expression goes back 25 years, not ten, to "Stewart Brand at the first Hackers' Conference[,] in 1984":

On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable.  The right information in the right place just changes your life.  On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time.  So you have these two fighting against each other.

This conception was modified in 1990 by Richard Stallman and is closer to my understanding of the expression:

I believe that all generally useful information should be free.  By 'free' I am not referring to price, but rather to the freedom to copy the information and to adapt it to one's own uses... When information is generally useful, redistributing it makes humanity wealthier no matter who is distributing and no matter who is receiving.

Mr McGrory applauds the fact that his parent company is forcing a change in policy at The Boston Globe, to make people pay for access to a new web site, to be known as "BostonGlobe.com".

Yesterday’s announcement was a game-changer to all this, a better-late-than-never victory for those of us who believe we should have been charging all along. Readers will still get a choice.  Boston.com will remain free, with news updates through the day, but sometime next year Globe stories will live and hopefully thrive on a paid site, BostonGlobe.com.

Free doesn’t begin to pay for the expensive journalism that’s produced here.  Free doesn’t pay for reporters who keep public officials and major institutions honest, and expose them when they’re not.  It doesn’t pay for the best critics in the country, as we have.  It doesn’t pay for some of the best education reporters, the most attuned environment and public health reporters, sophisticated political reporters, tireless sports reporters, sharp financial reporters, and the restaurant critic who keeps chefs on their toes.

Free doesn’t fund stories that expose corruption in the state’s Probation Department, or lead to an overhaul of the pension system, or cost the House speaker his job.  Free doesn’t shake the Vatican to its core.

Sure, some people will think us crazy, charging for what we do. But free doesn’t keep this place in business, which makes this plan not all that radical after all.

Capitalist!

Or is that supposed to be "Capitalist Pig!"?

And "shake the Vatican to its core"?  I thought the core was the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and his subsequent resurrection.  Or maybe it is transubstantiation.

I think Mr McGrory is playing the high-brow intellectual, talking condescendingly to those of us out on the world wide web.  But, I take his point about the MSM having to make money.  And here is the official announcement from The Boston Globe, complete with picture of Publisher Christopher M Mayer.

I was surprised to find that Bates College, his alma mater lists Mr McGrory under "Arts and Letters" rather than "Business", given that Mr McGrory seems intent on making the point that he is in a business.

For those of you out on the world wide web, you can whine at Mr McGrory at mcgrory@globe.com.  But, you should read his whole article first.

Regards  —  Cliff

This Can't Be Right!

Rasmussen reports that Ron Johnson is 12 points ahead of Representative Russ Feingold in the race for US Senator from Wisconsin.  In the interest of full disclosure, Rep Feingold and my wife are from the same city, Janesville, although the Representative is younger than my wife.  Otherwise, with the increased experience, he might be doing better.

But, Russ Feingold down 12?  This must be a mistake.  A typo.  A computer glitch.  I am blaming software developed by Kad Barma. :-)

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff