Category Archives: Politics

Study Group

The Iraq Study Group’s report, in my view, confirms what has been obvious (is this really confirmation):

1. That this “administration” has been building its own reality for many years now, acting in a space of subversion and cynicism

2. We have a deep hole in our national conversation, an emptiness of light

Number 2 needs some elaboration, since number one is just a fancy way of writing “lie.” We live in a time of rss, tags, and artificial super data. Even as I can read American and Spanish newspapers, images and messages can still be warped, as we saw in the latest CT elections, where false positions could be reported as perceived truth. For example, a line like this is fairly prominent these days: “Today the president responded to” blah blah blah “by declaring” blah blah blah. This is not watchdogging, nor is it practical. Research is not about “reporting” findings. It’s about the findings. It’s also about the how

White House reaction to the report will be predictable. The predictable will be reported and taken seriously.

We’ve known about this mess for a long time and it’s heartbreaking that the “Gee Wiz” will sound so professional. On scene reporters in Iraq have shown the frantic and horrific. Cut to smiles and the light side of the news.

In our military ranks there are teachers, parents, and engineers. They should be teaching, parenting, and engineering. And they should be given the space to do so. They deserve better than what they’ve been getting.

Walls and Fences

It strikes me that in Frost’s poem, Mending Wall, fence is a term used somewhat loosely. There’s a difference between a wall as border and fence as border. I’d suggest that animals are more tied to fences than borders and that walls imply more of something permanent. A border fence is a dumb idea, I think, and that for the future, other kinds of impulses need to be the call of the moment. What about human trafficking as a simple question of consequences?

The 2,000 mile US-Mexico border is complex. It’s more than just a magnet and playground for drug cartels. It’s a metaphor for relations. If this is so, then words have to be more powerful than chain-link. In this case, poets are more important than polititians. Friends more than enemies.

Chambers

In the United States we now have a concrete star chamber. It’s all about trust, right. The press, in mind, hasn’t done enough to inform and evaluate citizens about the language of 3929. If this can be said

SEC. 106. HABEAS CORPUS MATTERS.

(a) In General- Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended–

(1) by striking subsection (e) (as added by section 1005(e)(1) of Public Law 109-148 (119 Stat. 2742)) and by striking subsection (e) (as added by added by section 1405(e)(1) of Public Law 109-163 (119 Stat. 3477)); and

(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who–

`(A) is currently in United States custody; and

`(B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.

This language “exists” outside reviewable scrutiny, doesn’t it? In other words, other than principles, who would be able to evaluate “properly detained” and “is awaiting such determination”? This last bit just kills me: “detained by the United States who . . . is awaiting such determination”?

Current Law

I’m throwing out S.3929 which can be found via search of Thomas. Citizens should read this sort of thing and learn how to read legislation, in my opinion. But we need better disentanglers. The bill is made for hypertext and is almost impossible to read on paper because links are literalized. No habeas corpus here.

Design Bits

Just tried out this bit from Infinity and was astounded by the difference in quality from another I own. I practiced the routing on a piece of soft wood and the bit–six tools in one–sliced through the stock like butter. It’s big, sharp, and much heavier than my wife’s cell phone.

Comparisons are instructive here. One bit may struggle through the wood because it isn’t balanced enough or heavy enough, while another, about the same cost, reflects another kind of thinking, strategy, and study. Thousands of years of thinking can be reflected in that one object, including the physics of rotating objects. Machine thinking is an important human quality, especially if it respects the thinking potential of the user, not just his or her motions through space. It makes no difference whether it’s software, saws, buildings, or a national policy or law.

Yes, the bad guy is dead. The design of that destruction, however, leads where? Perhaps unforseen mistakes of aim.

Ned Lamont

S, S, K and I went for a visit with Ned Lamont in Simsbury yesterday. It was an interesting evening at the public library and, I guess, a typical political gathering of local democrats, Lamont supporters, and opposers of Joe Lieberman. What I found interesting about the gathering was the sense of uncertainty and hope in the crowd and that people’s questions reflected the typical disconnect between the world as reported and the world that people experience first hand. One we know, the other is beyond understanding.

Some asked about nuclear proliferation (I think we have no capacity to treaty with anyone anymore and find the whole business naive); Kyoto (the damage has been done and the answer is in mass-scale smart energy and people-oriented development–good luck since heavy energy is still the future); and the war (another case of neglect); immigration (I’m from El Paso and really don’t get why people are so angry about this). Lamont provided sensible and idealistic answers, including some refreshing “I don’t knows.” I don’t know what to say beyond this.

Sorry Security

On some down time I’ve tried to read through the new National Security Strategy but it is difficult. In my mind, the words have no reference to anything real, which makes the document sort of weightless and strange, like some sort alien goo.

We want we want we want but can’t give with grins and silly waves and faces and words like democracy and obligation and fingers up at what

Libraries and HS

So, a couple of HS officers enter a library and warn the patrons (reg req) about the danger of porn to the liver

Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.

The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words “Homeland Security.” The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.

How does this happen, say in the context of fiction. Two offers just decide they’ll walk into a library and make declarations? Just like that?